


When Lightning Strikes

by RhysMerilot



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-16
Updated: 2014-11-16
Packaged: 2018-02-25 14:56:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 33,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2625902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RhysMerilot/pseuds/RhysMerilot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set after 03x22…Regina is angry and when she tries to sleep it off, she unknowingly casts a curse that sends the residents of Storybrooke through a portal, but that's not the only problem they're dealing with, not when it happens again. And again. SwanQueen is end game</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All mistakes are my own. Originally posted on fanfiction.net

Regina Mills slammed the front door behind her, her anger bubbling inside of her, making her far too dangerous to be around anyone. After finding out that Emma Swan had unknowingly brought back Robin Hood’s wife Marian from the past, her whole world had shattered in seconds and the happiness she was finally feeling with Robin was taken away from her the moment Robin laid his eyes on his formerly thought to be dead wife.

Once again, she was stripped of her chance at finding her own happy ending and it was no surprise that it was Snow White’s daughter that did it this time. The Charming’s would forever be the bane of her existence and there was nothing she could do to change that. Fuming, she headed upstairs to her room, clenching her fists tightly at her sides as she tried in vain to calm herself down.

Emma didn’t know. Of course she didn’t know who that woman was. Of course she didn’t know that bringing her from the past would have severe consequences and like she had told her, she hoped to hell that she hadn’t brought anything else back with her.

Clenching her jaw as she slipped out of her heels and made her way into the en suite bathroom, she decided to have a nice, hot bath to relax her tense muscles before trying to sleep off the pain that came with the heartbreak and anger she was experiencing, two things that made everything hurt, not just her heart, but her very soul too.

After a long bath and a fight against her thoughts, most of them touching on parts of her former life as the Evil Queen, she dressed in her favourite navy blue satin pyjamas and crawled into bed. Tears burned in her eyes, tears she had refused to let fall, but she was powerless now, her whole body reminding her how exhausting the night had turned out to be. The last thought she had before she succumbed to the pull of sleep was how nothing in her life seemed to ever go the way she wanted it to and that the hope of finding her own happy ending was even further away than ever before.

Outside, a magical storm began brewing just after midnight, purple lightning streaking across the sky, lighting up the streets below as a swirling portal began to open up over the whole of Storybrooke, a new curse beginning in an instant.

Regina woke to the sounds of Snow White screaming and she sat up, finding very quickly that she was no longer in her bed, but on the ground in the Enchanted Forest with nearly all of the residents of Storybrooke scattered around for miles. She looked down at herself, half expecting to be dressed in her best and was horrified to find she was in the same clothes she had gone to bed in.

This was very different than when she had ended Pan’s curse and they were transported back to the Enchanted Forest, wearing exactly the same thing they had when the dark curse hit. All around her she could hear screams and people yelling out for their family or friends and she rose to her feet, groaning as the dirt felt damp against her bare feet.

“Mom?” Henry called out from behind her and she turned around to see her son dressed in nothing more than sweatpants and one sock on his left foot. “Mom, what is going on?”

“I honestly have no idea, Henry. Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. The last thing I remember was going to bed,” Henry said quietly. “And then suddenly I felt grass on my back and I woke up here.”

“I as well,” Regina said with a slight nod and she checked him over quickly to make sure he wasn’t her and when she found he was perfectly fine, a small rush of panic flowed through her.

They were back in the Enchanted Forest and even she didn’t know why. The panic that was all around them was closing in and she crossed her arms over her chest and watched as Emma came running out from behind a cluster of trees, wearing nothing more than a pair of men’s boxers and a white tank top.

“Henry, you all right, kid?”

“I’m fine, I’m okay.”

“Regina?” Emma asked as she looked at her. “What is going on? Why are we even here?”

“I am just as clueless as everyone else. If you are going to blame me for this—”

“I’m not, but we need to figure out what has happened and why we all woke up here and not in our own beds,” Emma replied and she led Henry away from her and met her parents just a short distance away.

Regina didn’t move from the spot, ever so tempted just to whisk herself away in a plume of smoke to her chambers in the castle and away from everyone else. She would be blamed for this, because who else could’ve done this. She rolled her eyes as Snow White waved at her and motioned for her to join their little family gathering.

Snow and David exchanged a knowing look between them, one that Regina knew all to well, the one they had before they stepped up and took charge over everything in the way that they do. She rolled her eyes as she stood there, watching the little exchange between the Charming’s for a moment before moving to look at her son standing by Emma’s side, whispering to her as he looked over at Regina with suspicious eyes.

She was most definitely going to be blamed for this, she could already hear the chorus of angry accusations, not just from the Charming’s and her own son, but the rest of the residents of Storybrooke as well. She stood stiffly as Snow approached her cautiously.

“Regina, do you know what’s going on right now?”

“No, I do not and if you are going to start blaming anyone for this current mess we’re all in, I would start with your own daughter,” Regina said coldly, her eyes flicking over to Emma for a brief moment before turning to look back at Snow. “She brought something back. It’s obviously clear now that she did.”

“What, like a curse?”

“Certainly feels like one, doesn’t it?”

“You really don’t know what happened, do you?” Snow asked quietly as she looked down at Regina’s pyjamas and she shook her head. “We need to get out of the forest. It’s not safe, for obvious reasons. We need to get back to the castle and we need to figure out what is happening and fix it.”

“You are out of your mind if you think I am going to be walking through the woods in nothing but pyjamas!” Regina said incredulously as she stared hard at Snow White and when she realized how serious she was, she shook her head furiously. “No, we are _not_ walking through the woods looking like this. We do not know how far we will have to travel and—”

“An hour or two at most. I recognize the area,” Snow replied calmly. “We can do it my way or we can do it your way, but we do this together, Regina.”

The sounds of a crying baby made her wince and she knew as well as Snow did that the forest could be a very dangerous place at any given time, especially now even more so that they did not know why they were there in the first place. Regina knew exactly what Snow was asking her to do, but transporting with all of them in tow would be very, very risky and not something she was willing to do.

Emma stood with Henry and her father, watching Henry as he tried to get baby Neal to stop crying, shushing him as David bounced the baby in his arms. From the looks of things, her mother was trying to get Regina to join them, to work together to figure out what was going on and how to get them home and Regina, as always, was making things difficult, that much she could see from the look currently on Regina’s face.

“We can’t stay out here,” David said quietly to Emma. “Your mother and I will take you and Henry _and_ Regina back to the castle where we can safely try to find out what happened here.”

“Do you think it’s my fault? Do you think that I accidentally brought something back from the past that made this happen?”

“Emma, no, you certainly didn’t bring anything back with you,” David said rather unconvincingly and she frowned deeply as her mother and Regina joined them. “What are we going to do?”

“We’re going back to the castle,” Snow replied. “Regina is going to take us.”

“What about everyone else?” Henry asked as the people around them started hurrying off, no doubt trying to find their way to their homes there in the Enchanted Forest. “I mean, if it isn’t safe for us, how do we know they’ll be okay.”

“Henry, things are a lot different here. Everyone that is from here will be able to manage just fine on their own. Now,” Regina said as she held a hand out to Emma. “I am going to need your help because I do not have enough magic on my own to bring us all to the castle together.”

“What do I do?”

“Just take my hand and let me do the rest, will you?” Regina snapped and it was clear to Emma that she was still angry about what had happened at Granny’s with Robin and Marian. “Take Henry’s hand as well,” she instructed and pointed to Snow White who reached out for Henry and David’s hand at the same time and David held on to a still crying baby Neal in his left arm. “Now don’t let go.”

Emma blinked through the haze of purple smoke and saw that they were no longer in the forest, but inside a castle. The stone floor was cool on her bare feet and there was a slight chill in the dark room. As she focused her magic, she managed to light the candle’s on the chandelier above them just in time to see Regina storming out of the room, the doors she flung open with a flourish banging loudly against the walls.

“That was so cool!” Henry exclaimed as he took in his new surroundings. “I didn’t know it would feel like that.”

“It didn’t feel like anything,” Emma muttered.

“Exactly!”

“Charming, take Henry and Neal, get them changed into something more suitable. I’ll take care of Emma,” Snow said and she didn’t let David leave until they shared a quick little kiss. “Come on, Emma, I have just the thing for you to wear.”

“If you’re going to put me into one of those god awful dresses, no, Mary Margaret—”

“How come you aren’t calling me Mom, Emma? I thought things were different now?”

“I’m sorry, it just with what is happening, it just slipped…”

“It’s okay,” her mother smiled warmly. “It’ll happen sometimes. I know that it will.”

“I’m sorry, really.

“Now come with me,” Snow smiled as she grabbed on to Emma’s hand and led her out the door and down a corridor quickly. Emma’s stomach was turning and twisting in knots as she was led into a large room and straight over towards a large wardrobe. “When we came back because of Pan’s curse, I was missing you terribly and even David couldn’t talk me out of making this room yours.”

“This is mine?”

“Yes,” she smiled and pointed to the wardrobe. “There are some clothes in there for you, fit for a princess, Emma. Pick something.”

Emma closed her eyes, knowing exactly what was inside the wardrobe before she pulled open the doors. Dozens of dresses were hanging inside, each of them a different colour and each of them definitely not anything she’d be caught dead wearing, not again, not after her little stint as Princess Leia.

“Are you serious?”

“When you are ready, follow the corridor to the left and you’ll find the sitting room by mine and David’s chambers. We’ll meet in there and we will get to the bottom of this.”

“But…” Emma trailed off, watching her mother exit the room quickly, leaving her alone in front of the wardrobe full of dresses she’d much rather burn than wear. “Great.”

On the other side of the castle, Regina was already dressed in her best and fussing with her short hair, muttering under her breath when it refused to cooperate with her. Giving up, she smoothed her hands over the corset she’d picked out, black and purple of course. She’d missed the feel of leather pants and the flowing velvet open jacket she wore overtop the corset. If they managed to figure out what had happened and they returned to Storybrooke, she was definitely going to dig out some of her outfits from her past that were safely stored away in her vault.

She knew without having to be told that the others would be meeting in the sitting room by the Charming’s bed chambers. And she knew she would be expected to be there with them as well, trying to somehow find an answer as to why and how they were back in the Enchanted Forest and why Emma and Henry were with them this time.

“I will never get used to that,” Snow gasped as Regina appeared, the smoke clearing quickly as she walked to sit in one of the plush chairs by the fireplace. “We’re just waiting for Emma.”

“Don’t you look handsome,” Regina smiled at Henry when she took in the sight of him dressed similar to David. “Such a little prince, aren’t you?”

“Mom,” he groaned as he pulled at the legs of his pants. “They feel weird.”

“You’ll get used to them,” David chuckled as he handed baby Neal to him. “Go on, take Neal over there while we work together to figure this out.”

“But I—”

“Henry,” Regina said sternly when he was about to protest against David’s request and she fought to keep herself from rolling her eyes at the thought of siding with David. “Do as you are asked, please and let the adults handle this situation.”

“Whatever,” he grumbled as he carried baby Neal to the other side of the room where there was a small crib and some toys sitting on the bookshelf behind the crib.

Regina sat there patiently facing Snow White and Charming, ignoring the whispers they were exchanging as they came up with their own conclusions as to what might have happened to all of them that brought them there in the middle of the night. Regina turned as she heard the door open and in walked Emma wearing a very dark green dress only Snow White would be caught dead in. She chuckled mirthlessly as she saw how uncomfortable Emma looked, but she cleared her throat, the seriousness of the situation far more important than taking a teasing jab at Emma’s dress was.

“It has got to be a curse,” Snow started when Emma stood by the fireplace, refusing to take a seat in one of the chairs. “But who cast it and why is it not like the one that destroyed Pan’s curse?”

“Do not look at me because I certainly did not cast this one!” Regina replied harshly.

“We are not accusing you, Regina,” David said gently. “We believe you when you say you didn’t do this, but we need to find out who did this and why and how we’re going to get back home.”

“Is there any way you can detect the magic, to find out the origin of this curse, Regina?”

She nodded, being too overwhelmed with the situation to have tried to figure it out on her own before now. It took a few moments of complete concentration and she closed her eyes, not wanting to see the Charming’s and Emma staring intensely at her as they were. She started to feel it then, the curse itself and it was unlike anything she’d felt before. It was powerful and it made every fiber of her being feel as if there was an electric current running through her only it wasn’t painful in any way or form. She focused her energy on the traces of magic she’d felt and then she saw it, just a flash of light as a portal opened in the sky above Storybrooke.

Oh it was a curse all right and even though she didn’t know who had cast it, something about it felt strangely familiar to her. The curse itself created a portal and she knew that while portals were possible to be used through the realms, she’d never known for it to transport an entire population at once. The laws of magic should have only pulled in two, at most, and she was at loss for what this really was and what was happening and even more so when she had no idea how to get everyone back home to Storybrooke.

“Regina?”

“What?” She snapped at Snow White as she opened her eyes, breaking the bond she’d made with the lingering traces of magic from the curse. “I don’t know who cast it, but it’s most definitely a curse. I don’t know what else to tell you, Snow.”

“It’s not that,” Snow replied quickly as she pointed out the windows along the wall near them. “It’s that! What kind of a storm is that?”

“It’s the same lightning I saw when I got up to warm up a bottle for Neal right before we ended up back in the Enchanted Forest,” David said in alarm. “What _is_ it?”

“A magic storm,” Regina muttered, feeling it in the air, feeling how similar it felt to static that was usually felt before an intense lightning storm. As she thought it, lightning streaked across the sky and she rushed to the window and looked up at the swirling portal that had opened up in the clouds. “It’s about to happen again!”

“What?” Emma yelled as she moved to stand at Regina’s side, looking out the window with her as she braced herself by holding on to Regina’s arm. “What is that?”

The lightning was so intense, so bright, that Regina closed her eyes to the blinding flashes of lightning and she held her breath, not sure what was about to happen next.

**********

“Regina!” Emma hissed at her. “Open your eyes!”

“Is it over?”

“I think so,” Emma replied quietly. “Because we’re not in Fairytale Land anymore.”

Emma watched as Regina slowly opened her eyes and took in her surroundings. They were in Boston, that much Emma knew, but how they ended up there was a complete mystery to her and her head was spinning, her insides threatening to spill out as she tried to keep herself calm. It wasn’t helping that Regina looked completely frightened and confused either.

“Where are we?”

“Boston, I think,” Emma replied and she threw up her hands. “Don’t look at me! I didn’t do this!”

“I never implied that you did,” Regina muttered and it was a lie. Emma knew it and Regina knew it, but they didn’t argue over it. “And I think the correct term is not where are we, but when are we,” Regina said as she bent down to pick up a piece of newspaper that had blown up against her leather-clad leg.

Emma grabbed the paper from her, scanning for the date at the top. When she saw it, she didn’t want to believe it. August 23rd, 2011, two months before Henry had showed up at her apartment door claiming to be her son.

“This has to be some kind of a joke or something, there’s no way we just jumped back in time, Regina! I thought that time travel wasn’t even possible?”

“It’s not,” Regina said sternly. “But I’m starting to think that it is after Zelena’s little spell we tried to stopped ended up happening. The laws of magic have changed.”

“Apparently so. So,” Emma said as she crumpled up the paper and threw it to the ground, grumbling at the fact that she was still in the hideous green dress she’d reluctantly had put on not that long ago. “What do we do now, Regina?”

“We must get off the streets and out of these clothes. I, for one, am not in any kind of a mood to deal with blithering idiots questioning my attire.”

Emma sighed and took a look around the quiet street they were standing on. With no idea what time it was, she figured it was the middle of the night due to the lack of traffic and the eerie quiet that filled the air. She spotted a newspaper box across the street and she pulled up the front of her dress a little so she could walk easier and she didn’t have to look back to know that Regina was right behind her.

“What are you doing?”

“Finding out if we’re really back in time or not,” Emma replied and she looked down at the paper displayed at the front of the box and groaned quietly. “Seriously, how can this even be possible?”

“How many times do I have to tell you that I do not know?”

“Well, don’t get mad at me! I don’t know either!” Emma said loudly, almost yelling at her because she was feeling just as confused and frustrated and frightened as Regina was.

Regina paced the sidewalk in front of her, her hands pulling at the edge of her velvet jacket, the air warm and sticky with humid heat and making her extremely uncomfortable in the clothes she was wearing. She stopped as she looked at Emma as an idea came across her suddenly.

“You used to live here,” she said simply. “Henry found you in Boston. Were you living in the same apartment at this time?”

“I was on a job that August, but yeah, I had the same apartment. What are you thinking?”

“How far is it?”

“A couple of blocks, maybe?” Emma shrugged and she took in her surroundings again, trying to figure just where in Boston they were, but being on a quiet side street with no familiar buildings in sight, there was no way of her knowing for sure. “Let’s just start walking and I’ll figure it out and you can tell me why you want me to take you there.”

“To change! In case you haven’t noticed, we look like fairytale characters!”

Emma laughed at the way Regina said it. How could she not. She just referred to herself exactly what she was and when she caught up to what she’d said, Regina started laughing as well, bringing a little bit of lightness to the otherwise tense situation they were in.

They walked for almost twenty minutes before Emma led them to the neighbourhood she once lived in years ago when she’d been in Boston and her life had yet to be turned completely upside down because her son that she had given up when he was born needed her to break a curse in a town where time stood still. Emma was grateful that they passed nobody on the street and only a few cars drove by, the drivers not noticing the fact that she was wearing a ball gown and Regina was…well, wearing what she was wearing.

Emma let herself into the building and up to her floor. She found the extra key she’d hidden where the fire extinguisher was across the hall from her door and she let them inside, knowing full well that the apartment was empty. She hit the light on the wall as she walked in and she walked straight into the bedroom and pulled open the closet door, eager to get out of the dress as soon as she possibly could.

“You said you were on a job? Where?” Regina asked as she joined her a moment later in the bedroom. “Emma?”

“Relax, past me or whatever isn’t going to come home tonight. I was in New York City that year, tracking down this deadbeat father who had skipped his court date.”

“Right. Your job as a bail bondsperson. Make sure you pick something your past self won’t notice is gone when she returns.”

Emma rolled her eyes and pulled out a black tank top for herself and a pair of black skinny jeans. She turned to Regina with an eyebrow raised. “Uh, do you mind?”

“Mind what?”

“Mind leaving so I can get out of this dress and into normal people clothes?”

Regina rolled her eyes and turned around, but she didn’t leave the bedroom. Grumbling under her breath, Emma struggled to get out of the dress and into the clothes she’d picked out of the closet, ones she knew that past her wouldn’t notice were missing, at least not right away. Once she was dressed, she searched through the closet for something for Regina to wear and she chuckled quietly at the thought of skipping one of the dresses she’d worn for work in favour of making her wear a pair of her skinny jeans.

“You are out of your mind if you expect me to wear those!” Regina yelled as Emma handed her the jeans.

“It’s that or you’re walking around wearing leather pants.”

“And a top would be nice as well or are you going to make me walk around in your ridiculous jeans and a corset for your own amusement?”

Regina was pissed, for more than one reason, but Emma Swan was really getting on her nerves and all she wanted was to somehow figure out how to stop this and return home where they belonged. Emma just ignored her moodiness, already used to her shifting so quickly from one mood to the next and she pulled out a crisp white button down cotton shirt from the far back of the closet, one she knew that her past self would never even know was missing since she probably forgot she owned it in the first place.

“Do you mind?”

“I do,” Emma said cheekily as Regina stood there holding her borrowed clothes with tightly clenched fists. “Are you hungry?”

Regina ignored her and she shrugged as she walked out of the bedroom to give her the privacy she was demanding with a rather evil glint in her eyes. She searched through the cupboards and the fridge, finding only a bottle of beer and some condiments inside the otherwise empty fridge.

With a shrug, she pulled out the bottle of beer and twisted off the cap, spinning around to look at Regina as she walked into the kitchen, her fingers working on the last button on the borrowed shirt. All it took was one look from Regina that told her not to say a single word about her clothes, but Emma couldn’t help but notice how good Regina’s ass looked in those jeans. Of course she wasn’t going to voice that thought, unsure herself where it even came from, but it definitely wasn’t the first time she’d noticed how attractive Regina Mills truly was.

Regina on the other hand shot her another look as her eyes lingered on the open bottle of beer in her hand, but she too didn’t say a word as she paced around the small kitchen, her mind racing as she tried to piece everything together from what they’d been through so far.

“The lightning,” Regina said mostly to herself. “Emma, before we went through the first portal, what do you remember?”

“Waking up to blinding white lightning and then I blinked and there I was, feeling like I was falling out of bed but I was on the ground in the Enchanted Forest, just like everyone else.”

“The lightning is important then, it seems,” Regina mused. “It happened at the castle, just before we ended up here. I caught sight of the portal before it pulled us through. Very similar to the one that came from Jefferson’s hat.”

“But it’s not from his hat, is it? His hat is destroyed!”

“No, it’s not, it’s part of the curse.”

“What kind of a curse is this?”

“If I knew, Ms. Swan, I could’ve finished it before we ended up here where I have no magic,” Regina spat angrily. She ran her fingers through her hair and felt her anger bristling under her skin. “I can’t do anything about it while we’re here.”

“So, what do we do now, Regina?”

“We wait until it happens again.”

“How do you know it’s going to happen again?”

“I don’t!”

Emma let Regina stew in her own anger and she walked over to her desk and flipped open the lid to her laptop. It took her a few tries, the password vaguely forgotten and she checked a few files just to further confirm they had truly been transported back to the past. It felt surreal and it felt like a dream, but a part of her knew that it was really happening and that she wasn’t going to wake up in her own bed in the morning and laugh about the ridiculousness of it all.

And she was exhausted. Her trip into the past with Hook had been sleepless and for good reason. They were too busy trying to find a way home and sleep was the very last thing on either of their minds as things in the past started to change all because of one little mistake she had made. No, that wasn’t true, it was more than one mistake. She had saved that woman from the Evil Queen’s dungeon and brought her to the present. She didn’t know who that woman was and all she wanted to do was save her, thinking it and been the right thing to do despite the consequences Hook had told her of when it came to time travel.

Of course it had ruined the progress she and Regina had made since they’d been in Neverland and now it felt like they were right back to where they’d been a few years ago, bickering and fighting and just being in each other’s presence had the tension growing back up between them.

As she finished off her beer, a faint memory made it’s way to the front of her mind, one that never seemed to be relevant but it made sense now. She remembered coming back from the job in New York City and was confused when the bottle of beer she knew she had left in her fridge before she left Boston was no longer there and the spare key had been moved, not in the exact same spot she’d left it inside the fire extinguisher case across the hall.

Emma turned off the laptop and she found Regina was on the couch, sleeping soundly as if they weren’t living through a portal curse that could send them somewhere else at any given time. She tried to figure out how long they had been in the Enchanted Forest and it couldn’t have been more than an hour at most. Here in Boston of the past, it’d been almost four hours and there was absolutely no sign of the lightning that came along with the curse.

“Go to sleep,” Regina muttered as Emma flipped off the lamp by the couch she was sleeping on. Regina opened her eyes and looked up at her. “You look like you need it.”

“Right. I’ll just…” Emma trailed off as she looked down at the other matching couch across from Regina. She laid down and stared up at the ceiling, watching the lights from the city create countless of shadows all around the room.

She was afraid of going too far from Regina, worrying that she would have to endure the next portal jump alone if she wasn’t near her. She had been right beside her when it started in the castle and when she had blinked past the blinding white light that left her unable to focus for a moment, it was just her and Regina standing on the street with nobody else around them.

Regina sighed heavily as she was woken for a second time a few hours later to Emma tossing and turning as she tried to sleep on the other couch. With a roll of her eyes, she quietly slipped into Emma of the past’s bedroom and crawled into the big bed, the sheets far fancier and smoother than she had expected. Then again, the moment they had walked into the apartment, she hadn’t expected it to look the way it did either. It was a struggle to fall back asleep, but she managed to, only just until the sun started to rise and it filled the bedroom quickly, the floor to ceiling windows without any coverings to shield the bright morning sunlight from chasing away the last of her restful state.

“Emma?” Regina called out as she walked out of the bedroom and the blonde was absolutely nowhere to be seen. She checked the bathroom, but it was empty and there were no other rooms she could be in.

“Hey,” Emma said just as Regina opened the door and she breezed in carrying a tray with two coffee’s and a bag which Regina knew had a few bear claws in side of them.

“Where did you go?”

“Breakfast,” Emma said as she lifted the tray, smirking as she walked past Regina and into the kitchen. “I thought you could use some coffee and something to eat.”

“You just left me here.”

“You were sleeping. I didn’t want to wake you. I couldn’t really sleep and I was starving and I figured I get us some breakfast and be back before you woke up,” she replied, her tone light and friendly as she handed Regina one of the tall cups of coffee before pulling her own out of the tray. “I don’t know how you like your coffee, but I grabbed these for you,” Emma said when Regina didn’t say a word and she dropped a few little sealed cups of cream and milk in front of her followed by a few packets of sugar and sweetener.

Regina managed a curt smile as she pulled off the lid of her coffee and dumped in one milk. “Thank you,” she uttered quietly and put the lid back on without looking up to meet the green eyes that were staring intensely at her. “I’ll pass on having one of those bear claws I know are in that bag, though.”

“Actually, the bear claws are for me. I got you a bagel, lightly toasted with butter because I had a feeling you wouldn’t want anything else but that.”

“Thank you,” she said, more sincerely this time and just as Emma reached into the back, she felt it. The static of magic fluttering in the air and it seemed like it shouldn’t be possible, not when she couldn’t feel her own magic inside of her. “Emma, it’s happening again—”

**********

Regina felt unsteady on her feet as she blinked away the blinding white light. She took in her surroundings, immediately recognizing where they were and when. She grabbed on to Emma’s arm and pulled her back into the trees and out of the field of long grass.

“What are you doing?”

“Hiding,” Regina replied in a hushed whisper, her eyes wide as she stared out at the field. “I cannot believe this is happening right now.”

“Where are we?”

“Back in the Enchanted Forest, but further back in time.”

“How do you even know that?” Emma asked, pulling her arm free from Regina’s tight grip on it. “Seriously, Regina—”

“That’s me,” she said as she pointed to the young girl riding a horse around the field, putting the horse through its paces easily. “I can’t be more than eight. It’s right around the time my father gave Rocinante to me as a gift against my mother’s wishes.”

“But _how_ do you know this?”

“Because I remember this day,” Regina whispered, kneeling to the ground and watching her younger self, happy and free of the evil thing she had become.

Emma knelt down next to her and watched as well. They were quiet now and Emma turned to look at Regina, watching a flicker of emotion roll over her and she knew that she was clearly remembering this day as she watched it happening in front of her. A part of Emma is worried that Cora will appear out of nowhere and she’s terrified just thinking of the things that woman is capable of doing to both of them if they’re discovered. Another part of her is perplexed as she alters her attention between Regina and her much younger self.

It was quiet where they were and although it was warm, a soft breeze blew over the fields and for some reason it brought a smile to Emma’s face. In a weird way it almost felt like home being there, despite the obvious reasons of they were in the past and in the Enchanted Forest and outside of Regina’s childhood home.

She stopped the other thought from even crossing her mind, the one that wanted to tell her that it was probably because this world should’ve been her home and then there was the thought that told her it was because she was there with Regina. No, she had gone down that road once, played upon her slight attraction towards Regina just for one moment and she couldn’t let herself continue to think that way about her son’s other mother and the woman who was formerly the Evil Queen and had tried to kill her years ago just to get her out of her and Henry’s lives for good.

“How long were we in Boston?” Emma asked, uncomfortable with the silence that had settled between them and not to mention her own thoughts that were starting to run away from her. “Almost what, six hours?”

“Roughly.”

“Regina?”

“What?” Regina replied agitatedly. “If you haven’t clued in yet, Emma, I am not in the mood to have a discussion at the moment nor am I in the mood to hear your inane questions about this curse that I cannot answer!”

“Sorry.”

Regina sighed in frustration, not looking at the woman next to her that was getting on her last nerve. It hadn’t been like this when they were in Neverland and she couldn’t believe how easily they had fallen back into very old habits while they were being forced into a portal, jumping through time and realms. This curse was testing her, she realized this now, but testing her for what was exactly what she couldn’t figure out, nor could she understand that after the first jump through the portal, it was just her and Emma and not the rest of the residents of Storybrooke that had come with them through the first one.

She did however try to revel in the peacefulness her childhood home brought her, choosing to ignore the memories of a time that hadn’t happened yet where they were. She missed the quiet, the smell of the crisp, clean air and the way the grass felt when she spent what time she could get away from her mother laying in and watching the clouds skip by in the sky overhead. She missed the time she spent with her father watching her as she rode Rocinante through the fields, looking on lovingly as she improved on her jumps over time.

She could feel her magic again, but it was weak, too weak to transport them as far away from her childhood home like she wanted to. It frustrated her to no end because she didn’t know why any of this was happening or if there was any significance to the time and places they ended up with every portal jump that had happened so far.

Suddenly the peacefulness of the day came to an end as angry black clouds suddenly filled the sky in the blink of an eye. It was back, the portal, and she felt that growing pit of uncertainty in her stomach as she and Emma looked at one another the instant the lightning streaked across the sky, brighter and angrier than the last one.

And all she could do was close her eyes and hope that wherever they ended up next it would be back home and not anywhere else, not in time or in another realm…


	2. Chapter 2

Regina smiled as her eyes fluttered open an the familiar sight of her bedroom in Storybrooke came into focus. She was in her own bed, home again finally, the silly little curse seemingly over for the time being.

Yet as she stretched out in bed, rolling on to her stomach as she did, she could feel the soft silk sheets against her very naked skin and her eyes flew open wide when she realized something else. She wasn’t alone in her bed and she felt a wave of panic wash over her, too afraid to look over and see just _who_ exactly was in bed with her.

She realized that it could be anyone in bed next to her, perhaps Robin Hood or someone else and as she worked up the courage to look over at just who was in bed with her, she certainly hadn’t expected to see the flowing blonde hair splayed out across the pillows that most definitely belonged to Emma Swan.

Emma Swan was in her bed, equally as naked as she was and sleeping soundly. Not through any of the other portal jumps had she ended up naked in any of them and she felt the panic rise in her, knowing she had to get out of there before Emma woke up and freaked out over finding herself naked in _her_ bed. Regina pulled back the covers and found herself being pulled back down almost the instant that she sat up and she froze as a soft, warm mouth claimed hers in a lazy kiss, kissing her in a way like they’d done it a hundred times before.

Then it dawned on her as she found herself kissing Emma back that this wasn’t her Emma, but a different one, one from a future she knew was definitely not real because they were not together and they would never be together. Not like this. Definitely not like this. She was panting when Emma finally pulled back, ending the kiss with a dazzling smile dancing over her lips.

“Good morning, beautiful,” she whispered, her hands wandering over Regina’s rigid naked body, somehow knowing where to touch to elicit soft, breathy moans past her own lips. “Is something wrong, Regina?”

“What the hell do you think you are doing?”

“Well I woke up wanting to kiss my girlfriend good morning just like we do every single morning, remember?” Emma asked, her fingers teasing over a semi-erect nipple and Regina found herself glancing down, watching as Emma’s fingers teased over her skin, and her whole body was reacting despite the fact she was trying not to let Emma’s teasing touch affect her in any way or form. “But if you want me to say good morning another way, I can do that too. All you have to do is ask unless you woke up cranky again this morning.”

“A-another way?” Regina croaked, her eyes wide as she couldn’t seem to tear her eyes away from Emma’s green ones. Eyes that were so familiar and yet there was something so different about the way that Emma looked at her. “What do you mean?”

“Did you wake up with amnesia or something, Regina? You’re acting really weird.”

“I most certainly did not wake up with amnesia, Emma,” she muttered and she tried to calm herself, tried to keep a sensible and straight head, but it was a difficult feat, especially since now Emma’s teasing fingers were trailing down her stomach and disappearing under the sheets.

“Are you sure?” Emma whispered, her lips brushing against Regina’s and she let out a little laugh when Regina failed to reply. “Maybe I can help you remember, hmm?”

“Emma, I—”

Regina found herself locked in another kiss, one far heavier and passionate than the first one. Despite the fact that she was very much in denial when it came to having any kind of feelings for Emma, especially these kinds of feelings, she did know that if this was Emma of a not so distant future as it looked like, even failing to play along would have consequences she didn’t want to think too much about. And her Emma, she didn’t have to know that this had happened. In fact, she knew she would _never_ tell her Emma that this had happened to her. To them.

Regina allowed herself to relax, losing herself in the kiss and in Emma, pushing away all her thoughts because she really couldn’t think straight with Emma’s fingers slipping lower until they were between her legs, teasing over her wet folds, skillfully stroking her in all the right ways. She could already feel herself about to come undone completely, but she held on strong, not ready for that to happen yet, not ready for what would most definitely come after that and that would be her coming to terms about the feelings she was feeling in that moment.

She moaned out into the quiet of the room as Emma’s lips left hers. She turned her head to the side, allowing this Emma to kiss her way over her neck, her fingers still teasing over her center slowly, almost purposely avoiding her throbbing clit like she knew that was exactly where Regina wanted her to touch her.

Her fists were still clenching the sheets and she knew she would most definitely not be returning the favour, not when she could barely tolerate Emma’s presence over the past few portal jumps.

Yet the way Emma licked and nipped at her skin as she made a gradual descent down her body had her uncoiling her fists from the sheets and allowing her hands to reach out and she threaded her fingers through Emma’s soft, long hair, sighing contently as warm, wet lips wrapped around her hardening nipple that had been teased before. She felt those very same lips curl into a smile before moving further down her body and not nearly as slowly as before.

“Mmmm,” Emma moaned as she spread Regina’s legs and settled between them, looking up at her with nothing but hungry lust in her eyes.

“Oh!” Regina moaned at the first feel of Emma’s tongue sliding over her slit, licking her fully and drinking her in. “Oh, Emma…!”

Emma’s tongue teased over her clit, sparking a host of new sensations running through her body because she had never let anyone do this to her, not even Graham. Yet, she was completely loving this feeling, loving the feel of Emma’s tongue and fingers against her core and she needed more of her, all of her. Regina’s body was reacting to every touch and she was powerless to stop herself from feeling that was, from allowing herself to be taken that way.

Regina’s back arched off the bed as Emma slid her tongue inside of her, twisting and turning as she fought to keep from crying out at how good it felt and how she desperately wanted and needed more. She couldn’t take her eyes off of the green ones that were staring up at her intensely, watching her every reaction, drawing out every twinge of pleasure that coursed through her body when every little spot was hit just right. Oh this Emma of the future definitely knew her body in every little way and Regina couldn’t even think about how many times before this that they had been together, but she could just feel that this had become something of a regular occurrence between the two of them down the line.

“Emma,” Regina panted at the loss of Emma’s tongue inside of her. “Please…”

“Feeling a little bit impatient this morning, are we?” Emma chuckled throatily as she inhaled to catch her breath and caught Regina’s eyes again as she licked over her lips, humming with pleasure at the taste of Regina all over her lips and tongue. “Tell me what you want. What you need.”

“I need…” Regina trailed off, watching with wide eyes as Emma dipped her tongue out to tease over her clit. “More. I need more. All of it. All of you.”

Regina’s toes curled as Emma spread her legs wider and buried her face in between her legs, her lips and tongue and teeth feeling as it they were everywhere, all over her and in her and it was too much, almost too much. In her haze of sexual desire, Regina let herself drop all her walls, opening herself figuratively and literally to Emma Swan. She felt like she was drunk, the arousal flooding through her body almost too much to handle and she knew she was close, far too close to falling over the edge and coming undone completely.

“Regina, I need you to…” Emma gasped as she slicked her fingers over her cunt, making Regina’s head swim in the heavy passion that was transpiring between them.

“What, Emma? What do you need me to do?” Regina’s voice was small and yet thick with heady desire.

In what felt like a flash of a second, Emma’s lips were on her own, kissing her hungrily, giving Regina the first taste of herself on eager lips and a persistent tongue that danced with her own. With her being so close to the edge, her orgasm building deep inside of her, Regina was willing to do whatever Emma need, whatever she wanted just to find her own release.

“I need your mouth, your lips, your tongue,” Emma whispered between brief kisses. “I need to feel you in me, all over me.”

A rush of heated desired burned through Regina’s body as she took just a moment to stare into the green eyes that were suddenly locked with her own. She gave a tentative nod and her breath hitched in her chest as she soon found herself in a completely different position with Emma’s pussy hovering just over her face and Emma’s mouth already back on hers, tonging her into oblivion and making her feel as if she was coming undone from the inside out.

Regina slowly slid her hands over the smoothness of Emma’s ass, drinking in the sight of her, seeing for herself just how wet she was. She inhaled sharply, Emma’s scent filling her completely and she deftly licked over her own lips before raising her head to take a taste of Emma, not sure why she was going along with this, but there was no denying that she was loving every last second of it.

Her nails dug into Emma’s supple flesh as she licked her again. She swallowed thickly, savouring the taste of the Saviour completely.

Meanwhile, back in the Enchanted Forest in a time just a little further ahead than where they’d been before, Emma found herself riding on the back of a small horse and everything felt completely different. Something just didn’t feel right about her body and when she brought herself to look down, she gasped in surprise to find not the body of the woman she was, but that of a young child.

“Are you lost?”

Emma looked over and saw that Regina had approached her on her own horse, but this wasn’t the Regina she knew, it wasn’t her Regina and it wasn’t the young eight year old Regina she had seen during the last portal jump either. This one was older, probably fourteen years old if she took a good guess at the young teenager.

“Are you lost, child?”

“I-I don’t know,” Emma stuttered and the sound of her voice was so different she felt like she could be sick. “I don’t know where I am.”

“Oh, you don’t? So you _are_ lost?”

“Yeah, I guess I am.”

“I’m Regina,” the young teen smiled as she trotted her horse around Emma’s much smaller one. “If you tell me where you’ve come from, maybe I can help you find your way home?”

Emma didn’t say a word to the young teenager, too afraid of hearing her own voice again and for saying something she knew would have some major consequences for the future.

“You’re shy, I can tell,” Young Regina smiled at her. “Why don’t we ride for a little while? I’m trying to get as far away from home right now, away from my mother. Is that why you are out here too? Are you running away from home?”

Emma didn’t know how to answer her, so she chose not to. She felt unsteady on the horse she was sitting on top of and she had never ridden a horse in her life until now. She didn’t know how to make the horse move or turn and yet, as Regina led her own horse forward on the trail, she clicked and the horse that Emma was on began to follow.

After a little while, Emma had caught on fairly quickly on how to control the horse she was riding. It was easier than she thought it would be and her own mother would probably tell her it was because she was born in the Enchanted Forest and that because of who her mother was, the animals of the forest had a bond with Emma, including the horse she had landed on during the last portal jump.

She felt a wave of panic hit her when she thought of Regina. Where had she gone if she wasn’t here with her now? Would they find each other again during the next portal jump, or did she have to ride out this curse on her own now? The young teenage version of Regina was far up on the trail away from her that she took that opportunity to turn the horse around, kicking at it’s sides to pick up speed and she didn’t look back. Not once.

Regina, on the other hand, found herself rolling Emma over in bed, her own smile reaching her lips as she leaned down to kiss the blonde-haired woman, her orgasm still rippling through her body and filling her with a feeling she had never felt before in her entire life. Choosing to ignore it, yet again, she settled her body on top of Emma’s and kissed her deeply and passionately, finding it hard to make herself stop.

“You are so fucking sexy,” Emma murmured over her lips. “I love it when you’re on top.”

“You do?”

“I do.”

Regina smiled again and she saw the corner of Emma’s mouth twitch as she stared down at her, wondering whether Emma wanted her to kiss her again or if she was meant to continue to reciprocate after the fact that this Emma had just given her one of the best orgasms of her life.

“I need you to touch me, Regina, because you’re driving me crazy right now looking at me like that,” Emma said insistently and when Regina hesitated, she moved to take one of Regina’s hand in her own and guided it between their bodies and between her legs. Regina tried not to stiffen as she felt how wet Emma was for her, because of her and as Emma’s grip on her wrist eased, she tentatively slid her fingers over the wetness gathered there.

While she had just been face first between her thighs, Regina had only used her tongue, not her fingers on Emma and she knew it hadn’t been nearly enough for the blonde who looked like she desperately needed that release she had given her.

“Please, Regina. Don’t tease me. I need you to fuck me.”

An unprecedented wave of arousal flooded through Regina’s body at hearing Emma huskily utter those words to her just before their lips met in another kiss. Although Regina had never been with another woman like this, she knew what felt good and she started to touch Emma with more ease, her fingers rolling over a hard clit and that earned her a moan as Emma’s hands swept down her back, her short nails dragging against her clammy skin.

This Emma’s pussy was hot and ready for her, wanting her touch, needing it in a way that took her by a little bit of surprise. She sucked on Emma’s bottom lip for a moment before pressing their foreheads together. Their eyes locked in a heavy and intense gaze as she eased a finger inside Emma’s clenching hole. Determined not to give away the fact that she was not this Emma’s Regina—not yet at least—she deftly slipped a second finger inside of her and started to fuck her slow and hard.

“Regina, fuck!” Emma cried out, her hips rolling against Regina’s fingers, making her fuck her two fingers inside of her faster and just as hard. “Unh, just like that! Jesus!”

Regina gasped in surprise as Emma slipped a hand between her slightly parted thighs, not hesitating as she slipped two fingers inside of her, making Regina feel what she was feeling. Regina could barely keep up with the pace that Emma had set between them, her whole body feeling far more spend than it should, but it was because of the exhaustion of jumping through the portals had put her through.

“Fuck, I’m so close, baby,” Emma cried out and the little ridiculous pet name nearly had Regina recoiling in fear. “Don’t stop.”

“I won’t,” Regina murmured just before their lips met in a wild, wanton kiss. She could barely hold back, her whole body reacting to this Emma and the way that Emma was responding to her touch. “Oh…Emma!”

Regina could barely hold herself up as her second orgasm in just a short span of time thundered through her body. They moved to hold on to each other, their bodies rocking as they both rode out their shared orgasm together. Regina had never felt anything so powerful, so intense and this portal jump had certainly held a lot of many new and confusing firsts for her, that was for sure.

She didn’t remember falling asleep, but when she woke she was on the other side of the bed with Emma spooning her from behind. She doesn’t allow herself to bask in the moment because she can feel it again, the magic bristling in the air all around her. She quickly slips out of Emma’s arms and makes a mad dash to dress in her own clothes, terribly relieved she wouldn’t have to spent another moment in the borrowed skinny jeans she really felt uncomfortable wearing in the first place.

Emma had purposely given them to her, she wasn’t a complete idiot. She knew that Emma gave them to her just to irritate her even more so and she made a silent promise to herself that when and if she was reunited with her in the next portal jump, she was surely going to make sure she paid for that little stunt she pulled.

But even just before the first crack of lightning, Regina turned to look at this Emma sleeping peacefully in _her_ bed and all it did was raise a lot of concerns and even more questions she wasn’t sure where to get the answers from.

**********

Regina blinked open in surprise as she felt herself being tugged and forced to walk. She was confused, but she recognized Emma’s touch even before she saw her. A warmth flooded through her body as she remembered what had just happened and even though that Emma hadn’t been her Emma, essentially they were one and the same.

“Emma, stop it, what are you doing?” Regina asked, horrified at the brash actions the blonde was displaying. When she got no reply, she tried to pull her arm free from Emma to no avail and they came to a sudden stop in front of the Sheriff’s station. “What? Are we back?”

“I don’t know, but I sure as hell am not going through that alone again. Wait, you are my Regina, aren’t you?”

“ _Your_ Regina?!” She gasped and this time when she went to pull her arm free Emma let go with a huff. “I am certainly not yours or anyones, because if you haven’t forgotten, you destroyed my last chance at finding happiness.”

“Yep, you’re definitely her then,” Emma muttered and she opened the door to the Sheriff’s station and said not another word as she walked inside. She stopped in the open doorway and looked over at Regina. “Are you coming inside or what?”

Emma rolled her eyes at the weary way that Regina glared at her before giving in and following her inside the Sheriff’s station. Despite the fact that Emma was no longer Sheriff of Storybrooke, it didn’t stop her from walking into her old office and fishing out a pair of handcuffs. She was doing what she believed was the only thing she could do to make sure that she and Regina did not get separated when the next portal jump happened. There was no way she was going through another one of those alone. Just being reverted back to a young child had freaked her out enough as it was.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Regina asked as Emma snapped one cuff to Regina’s right wrist and quickly moved to snap the other to her own left wrist. “You are most definitely out of your mind if you think I’m going to allow you to handcuff yourself to me, Ms. Swan!”

“Would you just relax?” Emma snapped at her. “I’m doing this because we were clearly separated the last time and I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to go through that again without you. The _you_ you!”

“Save it,” Regina sighed tiredly. “Why don’t we just find out when we are before we come up with a plan to put a stop to this ridiculous curse that has us jumping all over the place first, shall we?”

“And go where?”

Emma didn’t get an answer as Regina practically dragged her out of the building and headed in the direction of Mifflin Street. A part of Emma was glad they didn’t run into anyone along the way, much like the relief she had felt when they had landed in Boston of the past in clothes that came from the Enchanted Forest. When Regina walked up to the front gate, Emma shook her head no.

“You’re not just going to walk through the door!”

“It’s _my_ house, I can do whatever I want!”

“No,” Emma said as she pulled her towards the driveway, ignoring the very fact that her yellow Bug was parked behind Regina’s car. She noticed that Regina was trying to ignore the very same fact as she followed Emma around the side of the house and to the back. “We have no idea if we’re in the future or the past and we can’t just walk in there. What if our future or past selves are inside? That’ll create some big time paradox my brain really cannot handle or understand right now.”

“Yes, I suppose you’re right. So what do we do now? Look in the window, spy on our other selves?”

Emma nodded, smiling at Regina as she was careful not to trample over any of the flowers in the garden by what she knew was the kitchen window. Ever so faintly she could hear the sound of giggling coming from that very room and she was almost afraid to peer over the edge and inside, too afraid to see what was happening in there.

Regina on the other hand grew tense as she recognized the very sound of the giggles coming from inside. It hadn’t been that long ago that she and the other Emma had shared a moment quite like that. She almost stopped her Emma from looking in the window, but a coy little smile danced over her lips as she took moved to look inside, knowing that what they were seeing would surely pull out a rather interesting reaction from Emma in some way or form.

Regina’s eyes landed on their other selves and the sight had her body buzzing against her own will. Inside her other self was pinned up against the counter by the other Emma and they were making out, heavily, their hands all over each other as something was cooking on the stove near them. Clearly their other selves were enjoying the moment they were sharing together and it did nothing to help them figure out just where in the future the portal had taken them this time.

“Oh. My. God.”

Regina’s mouth twitched as she fought her smirk from curling over her lips as she turned to take in the sight of a very panic-stricken Emma staring in the kitchen window with her jaw dropped down in bewilderment at what she was seeing unfolding in Regina’s kitchen. She stumbled back, shaking her head as she completely trampled the flowers in the garden and Regina was smirking in amusement at Emma’s reaction that she just didn’t care her flowers were ruined.

“What the _hell_ , Regina?!”

“Hmm?” She hummed as Emma glanced at their handcuffed hands in horror. “Is there something wrong, dear?”

“Did you not just see what I saw in there?”

“Keep your voice down!” Regina scolded and she pulled Emma to the side of the house in case one of their other selves had heard them and were about to look out the kitchen window. “All that we saw just confirms were in the future.”

“In the future!” Emma squeaked and her face went pale, looking as if she could pass out at any moment from shock. “How the hell is that the future, Regina! You were kissing me and…touching me!”

“Didn’t look at all to be one sided from what I saw,” Regina teased and she was taking much delight from the obvious distress the blonde was experiencing.

Even she hadn’t been that bad when she woke up naked in bed with the other Emma. But she wasn’t about to tell Emma what had happened when they were separated during the last jump, not even over her dead body because if she did, she knew just from Emma’s reaction over seeing their other selves kissing, learning that she had sex with the other Emma would surely cause her to fall to her death in an instant.

Regina stormed out to the street, half dragging Emma along with her. She had no choice, she was handcuffed to the other woman against her will. They were halfway down Mifflin Street when Emma stopped and Regina gritted her teeth at the bite of the handcuffs in her skin at the sudden hard tug on her arm.

“What the hell is going on, Regina?” Emma demanded, her shock somehow had turned into anger in just mere minutes. “And how are you so calm about this! Where the hell did you go the last time? What aren’t you telling me?”

“Which question do you want me to answer, Emma, because I’m not sure which one you can handle right now.”

“Oh my god, you are fully enjoying this right now, aren’t you?”

“Enjoying what?” Regina asked, lifting an eyebrow as she saw the fury in Emma’s eyes she hadn’t seen directed at her in a long time. “You think that I’m enjoying seeing you freak out because of what you just saw? Oh, grow up, Emma!”

“Why don’t you grow up and just tell me what the hell is going on!”

“Ladies,” Archie smiled as he approached them, Pongo on his leash and walking at his side. “Ah, I’ve having a little bit of a déja vu moment seeing you two fighting again. It was barely what, five weeks ago that I saw you two like this last. Dare I ask what it is you two are up to now?”

Emma and Regina both had the same look on their faces as they glared at Archie. He chuckled uneasily as he indicated to Pongo to continue on their walk. As soon as he was down the street and out of earshot, Emma turned to Regina, her eyebrows halfway up her forehead as her mouth gaped open.

“Five weeks?” Regina mused as she placed her free hand on her hip. “Well, that certainly is a bit of a surprise, isn’t it.”

“Five…weeks and we’re in your kitchen making out?!” Emma shook her head, trying to make sense of it all, but none of it did. And she definitely couldn’t get the image of their future selves out of the spot it was burned into her mind either. “What the hell has happened in five weeks that we go from this to _that_?”

Emma needed to get out of the handcuffs and away from Regina. She couldn’t be around her when everything about this curse was throwing her for a loop and a half. It felt like a really bad acid trip without the acid and she just needed to be alone, suddenly not caring if she went through the next jump or the next hundred of them alone. She searched her pockets with her right hand, looking for the key. She frowned deeply as she looked up at Regina, a blush forming over her cheeks.

“What?” Regina asked narrowly. “Did you forget to grab the key.”

“There is no key.”

“What?” Regina’s voice raised a few octaves before she quickly recovered. “Magic. I can get them off with magic. Hold still unless you want to lose your left hand completely, Ms. Swan.”

“You’re still seriously calling me that after our future selves are in your kitchen making out like a couple of horny teenagers?”

The look that Regina gave her effectively shut her up before she could say anything else and she held still, watching as a slightly lighter purple light shone from Regina’s left hand as she hovered it over the handcuffs. Regina shook her hand and tried again, but nothing happened.

“Why isn’t it working.”

“A counter spell has been cast on these handcuffs, I’m afraid.”

“What, why? They were just an extra pair I had that I kept in my desk even though I knew there wasn’t a key, they were just there just in case…”

“In case you wanted to keep someone handcuffed indefinitely?” Regina asked, rolling her eyes as she tried one last time to rid them of the handcuffs and again, nothing happened aside from making the metal feel cooler against their skin. “This is absolutely pointless! We’re going to need some help if we want to get out of these things you were so determined to use to keep us together in case another jump happens. Do you ever stop and think or are you just like your idiotic parents and act on impulse?”

“You know I’m really starting to want to act on impulse and smack that stupid smirk off your face right now!” Emma screamed, getting right in her face. “You know, I’m really starting to think that this whole stupid curse is all your fault and you’re playing it off and acting like you don’t have a damn clue about anything that is happening!”

“I don’t!”

Emma was shaking, her anger controlling her and she could feel her magic boiling inside of her and she knew she had to calm herself down or something was bound to happen, something that she couldn’t control.

“God, you’re infuriating.”

“I can say the same about you, dear,” Regina replied, her tone sweet yet sarcastic just to cover up the fact that she hated fighting with Emma, especially after knowing what it was like to do the complete opposite with Emma.

“This really sucks, Regina!” Emma groaned as she shook her head. “Who would cast a curse like this? What is the point of it?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Mom?” Henry called out as he jogged up behind them. “What are you guys going out here?” He asked, his eyes looking down at their handcuffed hands. “Okay, I really don’t know why you two are handcuffed _again_. Really. Don’t even try to explain it to me.”

“Henry…” Regina started and he stared at her, waiting. “What are you doing here?”

“Going home. Dinner is almost ready.”

“Isn’t Mary Margaret and David’s apartment that way?” Regina asked him as she pointed in the direction he’d just came from.

“And shouldn’t you two be home making dinner for all of us?”

Regina blinked. Emma blinked. Henry rolled his eyes.

Emma broke out of her stupor long enough to jump at the chance in asking Henry about the portal curse since it was quite obvious that five weeks from now it was broken. Now was their chance to find out how to break it and with never knowing when the next lightning strike would come to open the portal again, she had to ask him.

“Henry, this curse, it’s broken right?” Emma asked and he nodded as he stared at her and then over at Regina skeptically. “How was it broken exactly?”

Henry pulled his best _duh_ face. “You know how, Ma. You and Mom broke the curse over a month ago.”

“Henry Daniel Mills,” Regina snapped as she placed a hand on his shoulder and turned him so he was facing her. He gulped and even the tone that Regina had used made Emma freeze up in fear as well. “Tell us right now, how did _we_ break the curse?”

“I don’t know! You guys wouldn’t tell me, you just said you figured it out!” Henry exclaimed and he jumped back at the dangerous look that was now in both of his mothers eyes. “I swear! Oh!” A look of realization dawned on him as he took a step back and looked at both of them. “You’re them!”

“Who?” Emma asked.

“Emma and Regina of the past, well, recent past. You’re still going through the portals because of the curse right now, aren’t you? That’s so cool!”

“Henry, it’s not cool! We need to figure out how to stop this right now and if you are holding anything back, don’t think I’m not going to forget this moment when it comes around, because you will be grounded,” Emma said lowly as she gave him a knowing look, one that she rarely used on him unless he was in serious trouble. “Come on, kid, tell us whatever you know. We need some serious help right now.”

“Wait, how many times have you gone through the portal now?”

“I thought you said we didn’t tell you how we broke the curse?” Regina asked him, her voice reverting back to the calm, motherly one she normally had around Henry.

“You didn’t, but you did tell me about all the jumps through time the portal curse took you through.”

“Five. This is number five,” Emma said after she thought for a moment, thinking back to just exactly how many times it had been since the whole ridiculous curse started in the middle of the night in what Emma figured was a day and a half ago given the amount of time they’d spent in each time and place. “Regina, does that sound right? This is the fifth one, isn’t it?”

“Yes, I believe it is.”

“Oh no way!” Henry said with wide eyes and he grinned, shaking his head at both of his mothers as he backed away. “It’s not time yet. It’s too soon for you to end the curse you unknowingly cast, Mom!”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Emma asked him as she furrowed her brow in frustration. She turned to Regina and shook her head. “So you _did_ cast this stupid curse and you didn’t even know!”

“Are you seriously going to be mad at me because I didn’t know I unknowingly cast this curse? Really, Emma?”

“I—” Emma’s mouth gaped open and shut and she turned back to face Henry. “How many times do we get sucked into this portal and jump around from time to time, place to place?”

“There’s one more unless you count breaking the curse and coming back home, so that’s two more. Oh crap!”

“Henry,” Regina scolded him and she turned to Emma with a shake of her head. “It seems like our son has caught on to a bit of bad language from you. I knew this would happen, I knew you would end up corrupting him like this! I should have fought harder to keep him with me!”

“Excuse me? Crap is hardly a swear, you should just be lucky that he didn’t say ‘shit’ instead!”

“Emma Swan, our son is standing right there!”

“You guys are _still_ fighting?” Henry groaned. “Whatever. Why don’t you go to Mr. Gold for help? That’s what you guys said you were about to do the last time before—oh! I shouldn’t even be telling you any of this! It could totally change everything! I’ll see you in a few days!” Henry said before he was jogging down the street towards the Mills’ house. “Or past me will see you in a few days! I love you guys!” He called out before darting past the gate and up to the front door.

Emma’s head was spinning again and she wasn’t sure it would ever stop. Moving through time and different places was something she still couldn’t wrap her head around and it seemed as if Regina couldn’t either, yet the overly confident look on the brunette’s face proved to her that she was taking this whole portal curse a lot better than Emma was. She felt Regina tugging on her arm to get her attention and when she turned to her, she had tears burning in her eyes.

“Come on, Emma, we’ll go and see Gold. I’m sure he knows more than Henry does.”

“Did you not hear what Henry just said to us? He said that is exactly what we _tried_ to do the last time. I don’t think we make it to Gold’s shop before we’re jumping through the portal again.”

“We’re not literally jumping through the portal, dear.”

“Well, sucked isn’t exactly accurate either!”

“Come on,” Regina bristled as she led the way towards Gold’s shop. “Maybe this time we can make it if we stop fighting long enough to get there before another portal opens! We need answers, Emma, and we’re not going to get them if we can’t stop fighting long enough to find the one person that can possibly help us!”

“How is Gold going to help us with this?”

“Perhaps we told him what happened when we tried to figure out how this curse was cast!”

“You are the one who cast this stupid curse, Regina!”

“Unknowingly cast,” she spit out as she corrected Emma, hating how the words tasted in her mouth, like they were the truth and yet she didn’t want it to be.

They moved quickly as they could to Gold’s shop, Emma muttering how she’d get there faster if she wasn’t handcuffed to Regina and Regina cursing herself for putting on heels instead of her black boots she’d had on when they landed in Boston of the past. They rounded on to Main Street, finally finding a brisk pace that they both could keep up with and Regina was desperately trying not to remember how well they seemed to do that when she had been with the future Emma in _her_ bed.

There was also the fact that Regina was trying to come to terms with how she could possibly cast a curse of this side, unknowingly at that. She had been angry that night and she wasn’t in complete control of her emotions or her magic, that she knew, but for it to have happened when she was asleep was something she couldn’t even imagine much less believe that it was true.

At the first feel of the static of magic in the air, Regina is the one that grabs their handcuffed hands and intertwines their fingers together just as they are steps away from Gold’s shop. Henry had been right when he said they almost made it.

They both closed their eyes before the lightning even struck, both bracing for the worst of what could happen next. Regina couldn’t help but slyly crack open an eye to watch as Emma squeezed her hand tight.

“I swear, I better not open my eyes and find I’m holding a severed hand or something here because that would be a hell of a lot weirder than the rest of this stupid curse.”

Regina chuckled, mostly to herself as the lightning struck across the sky and she could feel the magic working as they jumped through the portal yet again for the sixth time.


	3. Chapter 3

Emma blinked in confusion as she felt a warm hand in her own, but she played it off as the fact that she and Regina were still handcuffed together and that they had made it through the portal jump this time together. What she didn’t feel, however, was the cool feel of the handcuffs around her wrist and when she finally blinked away the brightness that had temporarily blinded her longer than the last time, she found herself walking on a beach with the warm sun beating down on her and a soft breeze blowing in off the ocean.

Before Emma even looked at Regina, she could feel that it was her and it was the first time she actually acknowledged that that buzz she felt flowing between them was real. She looked down at herself, smiling a little as she saw herself wearing jean shorts and a loose, white tank top and flip flops. Her eyes leered to the left, taking in the sight of feet wearing matching shoes and drank in the sight on the expanse of smooth tanned thighs, a similar pair of jean shorts and tank top until she looked at Regina standing next to her.

“Is everything all right?” Regina asked softly, giving Emma’s hand a gentle squeeze. When Emma didn’t respond, Regina leaned over and placed a soft, loving kiss on her cheek. “Darling?”

“Hmm? I’m fine,” Emma managed to utter as she squeezed Regina’s hand right back, thankful that she didn’t open her eyes to find she was holding a severed hand instead.

“Aren’t you terribly excited for tomorrow, darling?” Regina smiled as they continued to walk down the sandy beach, the small beach that Emma recognized as one of the few in Storybrooke. “I cannot wait to celebrate our son’s graduation with him and all his friends and our family.”

“Oh, I—”

“Don’t worry, darling, I’ve confirmed with the caterers the final decision of the mean plan this morning. Henry, of course, doesn’t want a party on this scale, but how can we not when after this summer, he’ll be gone off to college and we’ll barely see him.”

Henry. Graduation. Going off to college. Emma’s eyes widened in shock when she realized that she was more than seven years into the future. After seeing her future self and Regina in the kitchen, she still couldn’t wrap her head around it and even now, she was freaking out over the entire thing and desperately trying to figure out how they even ended up there.

But the one thing that freaked her out more than anything else was the fact that she felt the rings on her left ring finger when Regina squeezed her hand again. She made a subtle move, twisting their hands just so she could see the rings on her own finger and nearly stopped walking as she saw the diamond ring paired with a silver wedding band.

Married. Married to who? Regina-fucking-Mills? Now Emma was completely convinced that this was an acid trip of a dream because there was no way she would end up with Regina like that. They barely got along half the time!

“Isn’t it simply adorable that he’s so nervous about bringing Paige home to meet us?” Regina continued, laughing as she leaned in to Emma in a way only married or couples completely in love did, the way their bodies would just meld into one another. “You remember me telling you about Paige? Jefferson’s daughter. She went by Grace before.”

“I…he’s dating Jefferson’s kid? The Mad Hatter’s Kid you took from him with the curse and cursed him to remembering two different lives?”

“Em—” Regina shook her head as she came to a stop in front of her, tears filling her eyes as she moved to cup Emma’s face with both hands. “What’s going on with you today, darling? You’re not acting like yourself.”

Emma was at complete loss for words. She didn’t know what was happening, didn’t _understand_ what as happening right now. The Regina standing in front of her was older and even beyond the tears building in her brown eyes, she even looked at her differently. This wasn’t _her_ Regina, this was someone else completely. A version of Regina she had wished her to be back when she played with the idea of action on the attraction she had felt for her before, the same attraction she had forced herself to forget and let go of because there was no way _that_ was ever going to happen.

She remembered something then, what Henry—future Henry—had said. They had gone through the portal six times if they didn’t count breaking the curse as another. This meant that it was the last time before they found the way to break the curse and return home where they belonged. That thought alone, however, was making every instinct of her being want to run as far and fast as she could in that moment, especially with the way that this slightly older version of Regina was looking at her.

Before she could say another word or think another thought, this Regina’s lips were on her own, kissing her softly yet surely and she felt every ounce of her being soaring. She had never felt this in a single kiss, a feeling that filled her whole, a feeling that filled all the missing parts of hear heart she’d gone so long without. It scared her and it compelled her at the same time. She was conflicted. She wanted more and she also wanted to push this Regina away because this wasn’t real, this wasn’t her Regina. The kiss was broken suddenly, leaving Emma breathless and facing a confused Regina who was still cupping her face with a tender touch.

“You’re not her. You’re not _my_ Emma, are you?”

“Regina, I—”

“She told me this happened and I didn’t believe her. Not really.”

“Regina,” Emma sighed and she inhaled sharply as she reached up and removed Regina’s hands from her face, letting go of her as she stood mere inches from her on the beach under the blazing hot sun. “I don’t understand what’s happening right now.”

“No, of course not. This is before you figure out how to break the curse, isn’t it?”

“I don’t know. Is it?”

“I see.” Regina paused for a beat. “I think I know what happens next.”

“You do? What happens next?”

“After this, you will be reunited by her and things will change. Drastically.”

“How?”

“By realizing what you are to each other,” Regina replied. “What you feel for her is what she feels for you, you both are just being too stubborn about it.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“You’ll find out, Emma. How many times have you been through the portal?”

“Six. This is the sixth time.”

“If you want to end the curse that I unintentionally cast that night you brought Marian back, you both need to stop fighting and accept what you are to one another.”

“I don’t understand…”

Emma felt the electricity in the air and having gone through it so much in the last few days, she knew another portal was coming and it was coming fast.

“I can’t tell you too much or it could change everything, in the past, in the future and in your present, but what I can do is tell you that it will all be over when you—”

Regina, on the other hand and slightly behind in the timeline of future events, found herself blinking past the blinding white light of the lightning only to find herself in the same position she had been in before. Yet, this time she didn’t just wake up in bed with the future Emma, this time she was writhing beneath her, her body suddenly feeling everything and telling her that they were in the very middle of passionate and intense lovemaking that is unfolding between them.

Emma stilled as Regina did and as a series of looks passed between them, Regina felt a wave of guilt wash over her. She had been transported to a crucial moment, that much she knew, and the instant that Emma realized it, she all but had stopped the delicious movement of her hips grinding against Regina’s in all the right ways.

“Oh, it’s you again,” Emma whispered, her furrowed brow relaxing as she leaned forward and placed a soft yet sure kiss against Regina’s slightly parted lips. “How long has it been this time?”

“Pardon?”

“How long since the last time you were here with me? How long has it been for you?”

“Barely a day.”

“Barely a day…” Emma echoed and she chuckled heartedly as she captured Regina’s lips in a fiercely passionate kiss. When she parted, the same smile was dancing over her lips, playful and yet seductive in nature as she reached up and trailed her fingertips over Regina’s creased brown. “Ask me how long it’s been for me.”

“I don’t—”

“Just over a year, Regina.”

“How is that possible when it’s only been but a day for me?”

“The curse. I remember.”

“Where in the future are you?” Regina asked, not sure if she wanted to hear the answer for herself and wishing at the same time that she hadn’t even asked.

“I think,” Emma paused as she barely moved from on top of Regina, taking a moment just to stare at her. “I think it’s been about a year and a half now. At least for you. Or for me too. This time travel stuff has always been so confusing. You, well, future you who is with me now, convinced me to stop trying to figure it out.”

This Emma didn’t give Regina another chance to think about what she said, rendering her speechless with a kiss that left the whole world spinning around her as everything stood stood inside of her.

“You haven’t even kissed _her_ yet, have you?”

“No,” Regina breathed as all she could feel was this Emma’s lips dancing over the skin of her neck and a smile breaking out when she answered her. “I have not.”

“But you want to, don’t you?”

Her breath hitched in her chest as the realization suddenly dawned on her. She did want this to happen. She did want to kiss _her_ Emma and feel everything she felt with this Emma and so much more. It scared her, compelled her and yet while she was here, she could do absolutely nothing about it. So instead she gave in to this Emma’s advances, allowing herself to truly feel every kiss against her skin that this Emma gave her.

“I do.”

Emma smiled as she lifted her head to look at her completely. “She doesn’t know what it’s like yet, does she? Or maybe she does because she’d already been kissed by future you and has felt the _magic_ flowing between us, more than she ever let herself feel before.”

“She’s been with—”

“Yes,” Emma chuckled softly. “She has. I remember it happening. I remember how scared I was when you kissed me then.”

“This is terribly confusing.”

“How about we make it even less confusing?”

“How?”

“I’ll show you,” Emma replied, delivering her promise with a kiss that left Regina’s entire body aching for the unspoken promise she had just delivered with that kiss. “I’ll show you how to love me.”

Emma’s body contoured to her own almost perfectly and she found herself melting into the body that covered her own, revelling in every touch of Emma’s hands as they moved swiftly and surely over her curves, fingertips reaching spots that had her aching for more. She found that this Emma was thoroughly patient and she sucked in a sharp breath as her hand as taken in Emma’s gently and guided over the smooth skin of her side, allowing Regina to touch her, leading her to where she wanted to be touched, to feel the fingertips Regina knew that she had memorized over time.

She subtly eased this Emma to lay on her back, missing the weight of her body against her own almost immediately, but she delighted herself in the pleasure of her fingers roaming over heated flesh, watching every emotion, every desire flicker over Emma’s face with every little touch.

Regina could only watch as Emma raised her own hand to the nipple Regina had lightly begun to tease.

“Kiss me here,” she whispered, her voice heavy with arousal as Regina compiled and leaned in to place a soft kiss just over Emma’s hardening pink nipple. “Bite me.”

“Emma.”

“Please?”

Regina shuddered at the pleading sound of Emma’s voice, not knowing until now just how much it thoroughly turned her on and had her falling apart into pieces. She wrapped her lips around the hard bud, sucking hard before raking her teeth over the tender flesh. Emma arched into her mouth, her soft yet pleasurable cries filling the room and making Regina’s entire body surge with another wave of heated desire.

“More,” Emma groaned as her fingers slipped through Regina’s hair, her nails grazing over her scalp as she urged her to do it again. “Fuck.”

Regina circled her tongue over Emma’s nipple, sucking it in hard before grazing her teeth over the hard flesh once more and the moan she was rewarded with had a flood of arousal hit her core with an intensity she had never felt before. This Emma needed more and so did she and she leaned back, smiling up at Emma as she traced her fingers over the wet nub, waiting for further instructions.

Emma moved a hand to the spot just above her navel, her lips curling into a lazy yet lascivious smile, her fingers returning to thread gently through Regina’s hair as she shifted and dipped her head down to kiss over the soft skin of this Emma’s flat abdomen. Not receiving any other specific instructions, she continued to kiss over the soft, warm skin, her tongue dipping out for a taste of her. It was warm and sweet and she nipped at her skin, eliciting a squealed moan from the blonde beneath her.

“Oh fu—fuck,” Emma cried as Regina smoother her tongue over the slightly red flesh she’d just nipped and slipped lower, her tongue dancing over Emma’s skin, her eyes watching as gooseflesh appeared in its wake. “I don’t think…” Emma’s words trailed off as her breath hitched again in her chest. “I don’t need to show you how to love me. You already know, don’t you?”

“I can assure you this is the first time I’ve done anything like this.”

“Not exactly the first time,” Emma quipped, her fingers finding their way to the back of her neck, smiling as Regina lifted her head to look into green ones that were watching and anticipating her every move. “Here,” Emma said as she simply just lifted her hips against Regina’s torso and she spread her legs more so, her wet pussy coming into contact with Regina’s own heated flesh.

“Here?” Regina teased as she subtly leaned back to trail a single finger over Emma’s inner thigh, moving lower to watch her tremble under her light touch.

“Mmm, yeah.”

Regina let her fingers wander, her eyes drinking in the erotic sight of the intimate touch. In that moment she forgot that this had never happened before between them, she forgot the denial she held firmly when she was around _her_ Emma and just lost herself in this Emma completely. This Emma was easier to touch, to feel, to _love_.

At the thought of love, she shook her head and placed a few soft kisses along Emma’s inner thigh, following the trail her fingers had took moments before. She didn’t allow herself to think, just to feel, and it was far too easy to feel everything that this Emma held open for her so freely, so easily.

“And here?” Regina whispered, her breath spilling over Emma’s heated core, so close yet not quite touching her, tasting her.

The slight tug of Emma’s fingers pulling at her hair was all she needed before her tongue slipped out between parted lips, licking her fully and slowly, familiarizing herself again with the feel of her pussy against the flat of her tongue. This time she wasn’t hesitant, already knowing the taste and feel of Emma against her lips and tongue. This time she sought out to find those little spots that would elicit those breathy sighs and moans she’d grown to love the last time she had ended up here with this Emma.

The taste of her was intoxicating and reminded her of warm apple pie with just the faintest hint of cinnamon and vanilla. She drank her in completely, losing herself, her lips and tongue and fingers doing things she didn’t think of, just allowed it to happen all on it’s own. It was rewarding it itself, to feel Emma’s hips thrusting against her mouth, her cries of pleasure filling the bedroom in the early morning light that cascaded its way through the windows and throughout the room.

Regina moved her hands to grip at Emma’s hips, holding her down against the mattress as she tongued her clit feverishly. She wrapped her lips around Emma’s clit, sucking hard as she felt her body shudder and twitch as she came, hard and fast and screaming her name.

Regina lowered her mouth, placing her lips over Emma’s pulsating, clenching hole and sucked, the taste of her stronger as her orgasm continued to thunder throughout her body, every inch of her quaking at Regina’s every touch.

“C’mere,” Emma moaned as she urged Regina back up to her lips, kissing her deeply as her hands roamed over her body. “No, I really don’t need to show you how to love me, to love _her_ , because that?”

“That?”

“Was fucking incredible.”

Regina found herself smiling against Emma’s lips as they met for a kiss but didn’t quite make it that far. That word again, it made her tense, but she was soaking in the feeling that was emanating from this Emma, the feeling of pure contended satisfaction that was something she herself had only felt when she had been here before with her.

“Love?” Regina asked once she could feel not just the pleasure that had been coursing through this Emma’s body subside, but the intensity of her magic she could feel prickling at her own return to nearly normal. “Is that what this is?”

“That…” Emma said as she placed a kiss to Regina’s temple as they laid there holding on to one another. “That is something you will need to find out and discover all on your own, Regina.”

“But it’s real?”

“It is.”

Regina smiled as she laid her head on this Emma’s shoulder. She loved again. She loved even after her once supposed True Love was reunited with his formerly dead wife that Emma had brought back from the past. She loved the one that had did that to her, that made her unknowingly cast the very same curse they had yet to break.

As she found herself being rolled over, the glint in this Emma’s eyes showing her intention that they were far from being finished yet, she felt it again. She felt that static of magic creeping through the air and for the first time she didn’t want it to happen. Not yet. It was too soon and she wasn’t ready for this moment to be over yet. She wasn’t ready to go back to where they were before any of this ever happened.

She wasn’t ready because it was in that moment that she knew she was falling in love with Emma Swan.

**********

Emma was soaking wet when she blinked open her eyes and found that she was standing on the very same beach as she just had been moments before, but it was dark and cold and the rain was coming down hard. She shivered as she turned to look at an equally soaked Regina who stood next to her and lifted their joined hands up and shook it, hard.

“This didn’t work!”

“No, it didn’t,” Emma muttered. “Not this time at least.”

“Where did you go?”

“Where did _you_ go?”

Regina huffed as she turned to face away from Emma but not before Emma caught the flash of hurt on her face through the driving rain that continue to fall violently from the dark clouds hanging overhead in the night sky.

“I asked you first,” Regina muttered, her voice barely heard as loud thunder rumbled just a short distance away. "Where did you go this time, Emma?”

“Henry’s graduation,” Emma replied and it was those words that made Regina look over at her, mild surprise dancing in her eyes as they both struggled to not to look away from one another. “I was there, with you. Future you. You…well, _she_ told me how to end this or at least she was about to before the portal opened up again!”

“Why do you sound like you are blaming me for not getting the answers we both need to break this curse? Why are you blaming me, again?”

“Because it is your fault we’re here right now, Regina! You cast this curse, unknowingly or not, and it _is_ your fault that we are stuck in this never-ending loop of traveling through time and place and not even knowing how to break it!”

“I told you, I don’t know how to end this curse, Emma! Stop blaming me for everything that has happened because if I knew how or why this even happened, I would have damn well made sure it never happened in the first place! Just like I should’ve made sure you were out of mine and Henry’s life for good the moment you set foot in my town!”

Regina was shaking and even Emma could feel her magic quickly growing unstable under the anger she had flooding through her now. It didn’t stop her though, from feeling that anger too, from letting it get to the better of her and she shoved Regina’s shoulders, wishing they weren’t handcuffed so she could deliver a much need punch to her face without falling to the ground with her.

“You wanted to get rid of me and you did a shit job in trying to do just that, Regina!” Emma yelled at her, trying not to jump as a loud crack of thunder made the ground beneath them shake. “I should have never given you a second chance! If I didn’t try to see the good in you, if I didn’t believe that maybe you really had changed, that maybe you really were different and wanted to be _good_ , then we wouldn’t be stuck living through this fucking curse you _unknowingly_ cast and how did that happen? Because you were convinced I destroyed your last chance at finding happiness!”

“You did, but that certainly didn’t make a difference when I landed in _my_ bed, naked with you!” Regina yelled hoarsely and it elicited a shocked gasp past Emma’s trembling lips, trembling not just from the cold the rain brought, because of the intensity of Regina’s glare and the heaviness of her words, words she didn’t want to believe were true but knew they were. “I slept with you! We had sex. For _hours_!”

“We’ve never done anything like that, Regina! When the hell did that happen? In the last jump or the first one where we were separated.”

“I’m not telling you anything when you’re screaming at me!”

“You’re screaming at me!”

Regina panted heavily as she stared at Emma, _her_ Emma, both of them soaked from the rain and angrier than she ever remembered feeling with her. She was fighting so many complex emotions that she couldn’t deal with this, not this way, not here where they were on the beach in Storybrooke in the middle of the night in the middle of a thunderstorm.

She could barely even look at Emma right now because every time she did, she didn’t see her, she saw the Emma from the future, the one that looked at her with nothing but adoring love shining in her eyes. Of course she couldn’t tell _her_ Emma this because just like everything else, she wouldn’t even believe her that they could have something as real and strong as what Regina had felt between them. She shivered as she took a few calming breaths and finally looked up to face Emma.

“What did I tell you? The me from the future? What was I trying to say before you ended up here, with me?”

“That we need to stop fighting, which we obviously can’t do and that we need to accept what we are to one another.”

“What we _are_ to each other?” Regina asked incredulously and she used her free hand to wipe her wet hair out of her eyes. “I don’t know what that even means, but what we are are Henry’s mothers, both of us and I’m certain that we are nothing else other than just that.”

“What about what we saw, in the future?”

“It could just be a trick,” Regina replied quickly, choosing not to indulge Emma in the truth she had only just recently discovered, finding anger to be a much more manageable emotion than love. “This could all just be a cruel trick.”

“And if it’s not?”

“I am not about to tell you that I have feelings for you!” That stung, those words, it stung her deep and hard because she didn’t mean any of them.

“But you do?” Emma tried, her voice quiet. “You do, don’t you? You don’t want to, but they’re still there.”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about—”

“I do, because I feel it too,” Emma replied, sighing heavily as she intertwined their fingers, the cool metal handcuffs sliding over their wrists. “I don’t want to feel it, but I do, Regina, and I don’t even know what we’re supposed to do about it or how we’re going to end this ridiculous curse together.”

“I don’t know how to end it either.”

“You do know though, don’t you? Your future self was about to tell me how to end it and I ended up here, with _you_. I know that you know, Regina. You _know_ how to stop this.”

“I do not!” Regina yelled as she pulled her hand free from Emma’s and stared at her for a moment, the rain letting up a little as she did. “ _I_ didn’t even know that I cast this ridiculous curse in the first place! I was so angry that you’d brought Robin’s wife back from the past because I had honestly thought that he was my True Love and you ruined it for me.”

“I didn’t know who she was!”

“I know that, you idiot!” Regina spat and she groaned quietly, her head spinning and she felt her stomach churn like she was going to be sick. “I can’t do this anymore.”

“What?”

“This, us, this whole portal curse that keeps on happening,” Regina muttered. “Now that I know this is all my fault, I need to figure out how to put an end to this.”

Emma was quiet for a while and they moved to sit on the wet sand, both exhausted from enduring the curse for days on an end now. Emma was feeling conflicted and she knew Regina was feeling the same. The tension that was always between them crackled like electricity every time they so much as just touched each other now. She figured it was the curse and all the portal jumping that had been happening that made things feel this way between them.

Emma knew that magic was still very unstable in Storybrooke and she knew that when she got emotional herself, her magic was out of her own control. She also knew the same thing could happen to Regina, only on a much bigger scale because of the power she had inside of her.

“Do you remember what you were thinking about before you went to bed that night?”

“How much I hated you for taking away what could’ve been my only chance at finding my happy ending,” Regina replied and she looked at Emma, her eyes wide in surprise as she came to realize something. “I made a wish, a wish that I could finally have my happiness even if it wasn’t with Robin, and I thought that maybe Tink was wrong and that he wasn’t my True Love after all.”

“What exactly did you wish for, Regina?”

“Don’t laugh, it’s truly ridiculous.”

“Try me.”

“To find my True Love, to find my happiness no matter what it takes.”

“And now what, do you think that _I’m_ your…” Emma trailed off, unable to even say it.

“What else would explain the fact that I not only ended up in bed, naked with you not once, but twice, and we had sex,” Regina said bitterly, revealing just what had happened to her in the last jump without realizing it. She immediately regretted it but it was too late. Emma was completely freaking out and she felt her emotions firing up, ready to explode.

“Twice? But we’ve never—and we’ve never even come close to—shit!” Emma groaned as she stood up, yanking Regina with her. “It doesn’t make any sense. I’ve never thought about you in that way before. I mean sure, there has been moments where I think you look really gorgeous, sexy even and—”

“When did you have those moments?”

“I don’t know, different times! Like when we landed in Boston and you were wearing my jeans and I couldn’t stop staring at your ass. You looked good in them, Regina, and my brain just seemed to have a mind of it’s own.”

Regina slapped her shoulder, but it wasn’t out of malice. They both started to laugh as the rain picked up again and it was Emma who spotted the little shed where the sand met the grass and the trees and she pulled Regina over to it, seeking out shelter from the ongoing storm.

_“…you both need to stop fighting and accept what you are to one another.”_

“What if it’s true?” Emma asked quietly as she searched for Regina’s eyes in the darkness of the shed to no avail. Her head was swimming with thoughts of what had been revealed in the last jump. “Regina?”

“What?”

“Is it?”

“I don’t know, Emma,” Regina replied in a small voice and it was a sound that Emma had never heard from her before. She almost sounded scared to find out the truth, just like Emma was now that it had been mentioned and that maybe, just maybe they had somehow figured out how the curse was supposed to end. “What if it is?”

“What do you mean?”

“If it is true, how does that make you feel?”

“Scared.”

“Because it’s me,” Regina replied and it wasn’t a question, but a statement. A fact.

Emma shook her head no, reaching for Regina’s other hand and held it gently. “You’re different now. You were a hero when you stopped Zelena and you do have good in you. I’ve seen it. I know you’ve changed and that you want to keep doing better and I want to help you stay on that path and never look back. I want that because I care about you, Regina, and there’s nothing you can say or do that will change that.”

Regina could only just stare into Emma’s green eyes, her words filling her dark, broken heart in a way she didn’t expect them to, and she liked that feeling, the warmth that she felt knowing that Emma cared about her. She knew she cared about Emma too and she had even when she wanted to get rid of her, chase her out of town and her son’s life for good. She cared about her and she never quite understood why.

Until now. Until this very moment. Every wall she’d built up, every ounce of her denial in her true feelings for Emma Swan came crashing down in an instant and she willingly let it happen all at once.

“I care about you too,” Regina whispered and she moved to stand a little closer to Emma until they were practically flush against one another. “I think we both know how we end this and it’s time we stop running from it.”

“Regina—”

“After the things we’ve been through together throughout this curse, the things we’ve seen, together and apart, I can’t deny that what I saw in the future was everything that I want and it just so happens that I want that with you. I’m not going to deny that this isn’t the first time I’ve thought of you that way, or thought of how different things could be if you felt the same way as I do.”

Emma exhaled slowly, her warm breath spilling over Regina’s lips and reminding them both how close they were now. Emma couldn’t believe any of this was happening. She never once thought before this curse started, that she’d end up breaking down her wall of denial and admit that she had feelings for Regina, feelings she didn’t understand and was too afraid to figure out what it all meant.

Regina had taken the first step, she had admitted that she wanted to be with Emma and she hadn’t even hesitated and her words were strong and true. She lifted their handcuffed hands between them and placed a soft kiss on the back of Regina’s hand.

“We were married,” Emma whispered. “When I saw you in the last jump, we were married and you looked so happy, so in love, and I felt so confused as to what was happening and how we even got there in the first place. But then you kissed me and I felt something, I don’t know what, but…”

“It felt sure and true,” Regina finished for her and Emma found herself nodding in agreement, unable to voice the words herself. “Exactly what a True Love kiss is supposed to feel like and I’ll admit when I kissed Robin, I had expected it to be a lot different than the way it was.”

“You mean like the way it was when you were having sex with future me!” Emma blurted out and it drew out a soft laugh past her lips. “Don’t even tell me what happened because there is just too much to process right now and I’m just trying to get past the fact that I have these crazy, deep and intense feelings for you, Regina and I—”

“Kiss me,” Regina said quickly and even Emma felt the static in the air. Another portal was coming and it was coming fast. “Emma, kiss me. Now. Before it’s too late.”

Emma was hesitant at first, but she surged forward, capturing Regina’s lips with her own as she slid her hand out of Regina’s and tangled her fingers through wet hair, holding her close as they fell into the kiss, lips and tongues dancing and fighting for domination. There was no denying any of it now because Emma truly did feel everything in the kiss, everything that she felt, everything that she was afraid of, everything that she wanted. It was all in that kiss and she never wanted it to stop. Not ever.

“Oh!”

Emma pulled back from Regina’s lips at the sound of Snow White’s startled yell and found that they were standing in the middle of Snow and Charming’s apartment, soaking wet and still handcuffed together.

“Mom!”

“Emma! What are you doing?” Snow clutched at her chest, her breathing rapid and her face flushed red. “Were you just kissing _her_?”

“Did we end the curse or did we go through another portal?” Emma whispered to Regina who only shrugged in reply, unsure herself. Snow was on the verge of completely freaking out and Emma didn’t want to be there when that happened. “Can you get us out of here, Regina?”

“Yes, I can. Hold on,” she nodded before they disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke, leaving Snow gaping at the spot where they’d just been standing seconds ago.


	4. Chapter 4

“Hold still,” Regina said gently as they stood in Regina’s kitchen, their clothes dripping rainwater on the tiled floor. Emma squirmed, not listening and Regina snapped a finger at her, her stern look not that of malice but one that meant business. “Please, just hold still and let me try this again.”

“It won’t work.”

“Nonsense,” Regina said as she hovered her left hand over their joined ones. “It won’t hurt to try or else we’re going to forever be stuck handcuffed to each other.”

“You say that like that’s a bad thing.”

“I also know it’s not true,” Regina retired and she found herself smiling as Emma playfully rolled her eyes at her. She took a few deep breaths, focusing her mind and her magic, watching at the light escaped from her palm and flowed through the handcuffs. They both gasped as they heard the click and the handcuffs clattered to the floor loudly. Regina bent to pick them up only to pause in handing them to Emma as she shook her head and held out her hands. “Well, at least we’re free now.”

“And you can do whatever you want with those things because after being stuck to you like that, I really don’t want to go through that ever again.”

“Was it really that bad for you?”

“No, but—Regina, right now, I don’t know how to like, process anything. I’m tired, I’m _beyond_ tired, and all I can think about right now I going home and sleeping this whole stupid curse off.”

“Right,” Regina said sharply as she turned on her heels and discarded the handcuffs into the garbage without a second thought. “If that is how you feel, then perhaps you should just leave.”

“You know that’s not how I feel, but like I said, I’m tired.”

Regina clenched her jaw, ignoring the massive disappointment that flooded her because she had thought when they appeared in Snow’s apartment once the curse ended, that things would have surely gone far differently than the way they were in that moment. Regina looked down at her clothes, soaked through and the urge to take them off, to shower, was almost as overwhelming as the thoughts of wanting to kiss Emma were.

“We broke the curse, didn’t we? We actually broke it. How?” Emma continued, unmoving from where she stood, her eyes cast downwards at the puddle forming around her feet. “How did we do it? How did we break the curse when we didn’t even know how to break it?”

“I’m not entirely sure.”

“You’re lying.”

“What do you want me to tell you, Emma? That we broke it with True Love’s kiss? Because right now I think you are not going to believe that for a single second that that is exactly what broke that curse I _unintentionally_ cast!” Regina said, breathing heavily as she stared at the woman in front of her, watching her go through different emotions at once, shock, fear, hope, lust, and love. How anyone could feel those train of emotions in one moment, well, Regina knew Emma well enough to know that she was a very emotional person when her walls were down.

And right now, ever since that kiss in the shed in the rain, her walls had been knocked down completely and Regina could see her struggling to put them back up.

Regina could see right through her and it terrified Emma to no ends because nobody had ever looked at her the way Regina did, exactly the way she was as she moved slowly, approaching Emma with caution, her eyes soft and her hands reaching for the ones that Emma had stiffly at her sides.

“True Love kiss can break any curse, can’t it?” Emma whispered quietly as she let Regina take her hands in her own. “Because all we did—we just—how, Regina?”

“It can, yes,” Regina whispered, moving to stand closer to her. “I’m not sure how it worked or why we ended up in Snow and Charming’s apartment, but it’s over now.”

“Are you sure?”

“Can’t you feel it, Emma?” Regina asked and Emma shook her head no quickly. Regina remained calm, a small smile forming over her lips as she placed one hand over Emma’s heart. “Focus and feel it in your heart. The last traces of the curse is gone completely and you know it because you felt it too when you had your magic and even when you didn’t. I know because I felt it too.”

“I feel…something…”

Regina moved closer to her, both of them smiling as they leaned in for a kiss, a kiss that didn’t happen as they stepped apart at the sound of feet running towards the kitchen.

“You guys are back!” Henry laughed happily as he threw himself at both of his mothers, hugging them tight. “I can’t believe you guys are back!”

“Hey, kid!” Emma laughed as she ruffled his hair but her eyes were on Regina, their hands touching as they rested on Henry’s back together. “So, we got a lot of questions and I know you got yours, but your mom and I are pretty tired from this curse so try to keep from exploding all at once.”

Henry laughed and he hugged them both again. “You guys have been gone for a day and a half longer than us. We thought maybe the portal jump took you somewhere else in our time because half the people that live in Storybrooke were found just by the town line. We looked everywhere for you guys.”

“Henry, how many times did you go through the portal?” Regina asked and they moved to sit at the kitchen island, Emma moving to stand beside Regina as Henry sat on a stool. “Henry?”

“Just to the Enchanted Forest and back home again. What about you guys?”

“One thing at a time, Henry, I think your mom and I need to ask our questions first, okay?” Emma said and he nodded as they both looked at Regina. When Regina gave her a curt nod, giving her the first question, she leaned forward on the countertop and came to rest on her elbows. “So, you only went to the Enchanted Forest and then back here, kid? Did we go through the portal first or did we all go together?”

“All I remember was the lightning and Gramps grabbing me and Neal together. Then you guys were gone and there was another few flashes of lightning and I was with Gramps and Neal, but Grams was nowhere to be seen. I thought that you guys were with her, but when she met up with us at the library, she hadn’t seen either of you guys.”

“Do you know if everyone came back?”

“Everyone but you guys came back, Ma,” Henry said to Emma and he frowned. “I was worried about both of you. Nobody seemed to know where you were or how to get you back. Mr. Gold said it was some kind of a curse, but even he didn’t know where it came from or how to break it.”

“Mr. Gold was trying to help?” Regina looked a Emma with a skeptical look in her eyes, one that mirrored Henry’s look. “What did he try to do?”

“A few spells to locate you guys, it never worked,” Henry replied. “Snow thought you were dead, Ma, because you didn’t show up on that globe when Mr. Gold used her and Gramps to try to find you. Why didn’t it work if you guys are here now?”

Emma looked to Regina again and this time Regina leaned forward on the counter, mirroring Emma as she leaned on her elbows. “Because we were in different times, in different places, Henry.”

Henry nodded and looked down at his hands in his lap and it was a look that both women knew all too well when it came to their son. He had something he wanted to ask them or tell them and he wasn’t sure how to say it. Regina and Emma exchanged a look and in that moment they both knew that he had seen them in Snow’s apartment.

Emma remembered what Henry had said during the fifth jump through the portal, about being handcuffed again. Her face flushed pink as Henry sheepishly lifted his eyes to look at both of his mothers’ faces. They had two very different looks as they stared at him; Regina was calm and unnerved and Emma was red-faced and almost embarrassed that Henry had been in Snow’s apartment when she and Regina suddenly appeared not that long ago.

“Henry, were you in Snow’s apartment?” Regina asked even though she already knew the answer just as well as Emma did. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Why were you guys kissing?” Henry asked in a small voice, one that reminded Regina of when he was a young boy, shy and timid, unsure about the world and the people around him. “Mom?”

“It’s…complicated right now, kid,” Emma answered before Regina could and she could not only see but feel the flash of hurt that went through Regina at her choice of words. But it was true, for Emma everything was complicated and talking about this with Henry before she got to talk about it with Regina alone was complicating things. “Why don’t we just talk more about this curse, alright?”

“Fine. Are you going to tell me how you broke the curse?”

Regina said nothing as she moved away from the island and leaned up against the counter behind it, her arms deftly crossed over her chest. Emma sighed and tried to remember what future Henry had said.

“We just figured it out, kid.”

“Right, you don’t want to tell me because you think I’m not gonna be able to understand anything!”

“Listen to me, kid, five weeks from now everything about what is happening right now is going to make a lot of sense.”

“Wait, you saw me five weeks from now?”

“Yeah.”

“And you had a conversation with me?”

“Yes.”

“Emma,” Regina said with a warning in her tone. “That’s enough questions for today, Henry. If you want to stay for dinner, I’m sure I can rouse something up for the three of us, that is, if you would like to stay for dinner, Emma?”

“I think I need to go home and do a little bit of damage control with my mother right now,” Emma replied quietly, hoping Regina would understand and not try to accuse her of running away from her or what was building between them and the obvious part, thinking that she was completely freaking out over True Love kiss being what broke the curse. “Henry, you can stay if you want to. I’m sure you both want to have some time together, yeah?”

“And what about the curse?”

“We promise that we’ll talk about it, just not today, okay?” Emma replied and she moved around the island and kissed him on top of his head. “I’ll see you later, kid. Regina.”

Emma didn’t even look at Regina before she walked out of the kitchen and headed for the front door and she wasn’t going to lie when she heard the sound of Regina’s heels clicking on the floor behind her didn’t get her heart racing. She paused at the front door and turned to look at Regina, unable to read behind the mask she so easily slid behind, just like she always did when she wasn’t in complete control of her own emotions.

“Could we talk about this later perhaps?” Regina asked quietly. “You told our son that it’s complicated. That means we need to talk about what is going on between us.”

“And we will, Regina, just…not right now,” Emma breathed out heavily, fighting that feeling inside of her that just wanted to run as far away from there as she could. “If it’s okay with you, tell Henry he can stay here for a couple of days if that’s what you both want. I just need some time alone.”

“How much time.”

“I don’t know. I’ve got a lot to figure out right now,” Emma replied, frowning since she knew that Regina didn’t have a single clue about her kissing Hook outside the diner the night the curse was cast. She hadn’t even thought about him or that kiss until now, but it didn’t even make a difference now because her heart and her head and her soul was leading her directly into Regina’s direction. Maybe it always had and it took a portal curse, taking them through time, and breaking it just to bring them to where they were now. “It’s not you, Regina, it’s me.”

“It does sound like you’re breaking up with me and we aren’t even together.”

Emma swallowed the lump forming in her throat. “I’m not, I just…can you give me a few days, please? That’s all I’m asking for is a few days just so I can figure out what this all means right now.”

“Of course. Take all the time that you need.”

Emma nodded, smiling tightly before she walked out the front door of the Mills’ house.

She never looked back.

Regina watched her, waited for her to stop before she reached the gate and run back to her, but it never happened. Emma hadn’t even stopped to look back at her and it hurt more than it should’ve, it hurt because of everything they had just gone through, it felt as if none of it had happened at all. Regina closed the door, the sound of it slamming echoing through the house.

She ignored Henry as she headed upstairs to her room to take a much needed shower and change into fresh, clean clothes. She had barely pulled her heels off before the tentative knock sounded on the door that she’d left slightly ajar.

“What is it, Henry?”

“Are you and Emma still fighting?” Henry asked as he nudged the door open a little with the toe of his shoe. “Because I thought things were different when you two appeared out of nowhere and you were…kissing. And please, don’t tell me it’s complicated because I’m not a little kid anymore, Mom.”

“I know you aren’t,” Regina smiled affectionally at her son, her growing son, changing every day before her very eyes, growing up to be a strong, smart young man. “I love Emma, more than I ever thought I did. I think she feels the same way, but she’s very confused right now.”

“Because you’re guys are women?”

“It’s more than that, I think.”

“Is it because of who you used to be? You aren’t _her_ anymore, Mom. You haven’t been for a long time and you’re good now, aren’t you? Gra—David told me what happened with Zelena, how you defeated her with light magic. You couldn’t have light magic if you aren’t good now.”

“I don’t think that’s the reason either, Henry.”

“But if you love her, why did you let her go? Why didn’t you make her stay?”

_If you love someone, set them free. If they come back, they’re yours…_

“I gave her a choice and she made her choice. She needs some time right now and we both need to respect and understand that,” Regina said gently, hoping her son would understand and she knew he would. “Now, why don’t you go and watch some TV before I start dinner, okay? I’m going to shower and get changed.”

“Okay, Mom,” Henry smiled. “I’m glad you’re back and that you’re both safe.”

“Thank you, my little prince.”

Regina waited until he walked out of her room before shutting the door completely. She didn’t want him to see her cry, not over Emma, not over her leaving like that because she needed time alone. It wasn’t the only reason why she was crying, but without Emma there, there was nothing she could do about the bursting feeling in her heart that had started the moment they had kissed each other for real for the very first time.

Wiping at her tears, she stripped out of her clothes and walked into the bathroom. It wasn’t until she was under the hot spray of water that she really let the tears fall harder than before, her muffled cries drowned out by the sound of the water.

**********

( _One Week Later…_ )

Emma laid in her bed, curled up under the covers and doing all she could do to avoid her mother completely. She was tired of the questions she wasn’t ready to answer, tired of seeing that horrified look on Snow’s face when she asked her why she was kissing Regina and why they had been handcuffed together, suddenly appearing in their home instead of anywhere else in Storybrooke.

The first night back home after the curse, she couldn’t sleep, her mind was focused solely on what had happened between her and Regina in the moments that led up to the kiss that broke the curse. She did had crazy, deep and intense feelings for the other woman, feelings she had been able to push aside so easily for years, feelings that slipped out throughout the curse and she couldn’t stop any of them from affecting her in every way. It made her feel so confused, not because she had those feelings for another woman, but because it was Regina Mills, the other mother of her son and her former enemy.

Yet, she knew they were a family, even if they weren’t together. They shared Henry and at the end of the day, that made them family no matter what the situation was. It’d been like that since the first curse was broken and they fell into that role and it hadn’t been easy. Neverland had changed everything for them, their only focus had been to save Henry from Pan and they worked together to do just that. Just thinking of what happened leading up to Pan’s curse and after, it made her heart ache because she was stuck with two sets of memories, one of her life in Storybrooke with Regina and her parents and everyone she’d come to love and care about, and the other in New York City which was given to her by Regina, a chance at her own happy ending with her son.

And in the last two days, everything she thought about all came back down to Regina and the feelings that were definitely not one-sided. Regina had told her before they broke the portal curse that she cared for her and wanted to be with her and a part of her was so scared of letting that happen, scared because she knew if anyone was going to get hurt if things fell apart between them, it was going to be Regina and Henry, not her. She couldn’t do that to either of them. They didn’t deserve that. It was the one thing she was so afraid of, giving her heart just to take it back at the first moment things went wrong and ran.

Emma didn’t forget about the second portal jump she’d taken alone, thrust into the future where Regina was her wife—her _wife_!—and she knew that whatever fears she had about their relationship and what it could become were her own and those fears were stemmed from her own tragic childhood. Trusting people, committing to someone, it was a huge step, something she had only learned how to do once Henry had come into her life and literally turned it upside down on her.

“Emma?”

She sniffled as she buried her face into her pillow, still not in the mood to face her mother, but she knew she couldn’t avoid her forever and a part of her smiled at the fact that she had a mother who cared for her, loved her and hated seeing her going through so much all on her own.

“Emma, can I come in?”

“It’s not locked.”

Snow walked in with two cups of hot chocolate in her hand. Emma could smell the blend of chocolate and cinnamon before she even lifted her head from her pillow and she smiled as she moved over on the bed and took the offered mug from Snow as she sat down.

“Thanks.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m just…tired.”

“From the curse, right,” her mother nodded slowly. “Can we talk?”

“If this is about what you saw—”

“You were kissing Regina,” Snow replied quietly. “And I still don’t know why. I’m trying to understand why you were kissing her.”

“I don’t know how to explain that to you right now.”

“Can’t you at least try?”

“We broke the curse, Mom,” she said as she stared down into her mug. “True Love’s kiss can break any curse. We all know that. I think that’s what it was, what broke it and she said that it was, but I’m not sure that’s the right answer.”

She expected her mother to freak out, but Snow remained as calm as ever and even offered Emma a small smile before moving to scoot a little closer to her on the bed.

“Why are you so calm right now?”

“I just came from seeing Blue,” Snow said and she smiled again as if she was trying to ease whatever fears Emma had swirling around in her mind. “I went to talk to her about the portal curse because you wouldn’t talk to me and Regina—well, you know what she’s like,” Snow laughed, shaking her head a little. “Blue told me that all she knew about this curse, like any others, was that there was only one way to break it. I didn’t want to believe it at first, I couldn’t and you know why it’s so hard for me, but I know you haven’t seen her since the two of you disappeared from the living room days ago, just seconds after you appeared after being missing for days.”

Emma clenched her jaw tight, watching every little reaction and flicker of emotion in her mother’s eyes, trying to gauge just when she was going to start crying or screaming at her over her kissing Regina. But that never came, all that came next was Snow taking her mug from her hand, placing both of them on the nightstand and pulling Emma in for a tight hug.

“You are the Saviour for many reasons, Emma. I don’t think any of us will ever understand all the reasons or know just what they are, but you saved yourself and Regina, in more ways than you know.”

“Mom—”

“I’m not saying I approve and I’m not saying that I don’t. I just need some time to be okay with this. Whether you and Regina are…together…or not, I still need time.”

Emma tried not to laugh, hearing her mother feeding her almost the same line she’d said to Regina before she walked out of the house and never looked back. She was more like her mother than she cared to admit at times.

“So, it’s true? We really broke it together?” Emma asked in a quiet voice, still holding on to her mother who had her arms wrapped around her so tight she was sure she would never let her go if she had her way. Emma felt her nod her head and then the warm tears that slid down her cheek and fell to her shoulders. “I don’t understand.”

“True Love isn’t easy to understand and not everyone finds theirs. You’re one of the lucky ones, Emma, just like your father and I. We didn’t exactly get along at first either.”

“Right,” Emma said, trying to smile through her tears because this was surreal, this was her mother, Snow White, trying to accept the fact that her own daughter was the former Evil Queen’s soul mate, her True Love. “Mom, I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know if I can be with her, give her my heart—”

“Not literally give it to her, right?”

“No,” she laughed softly. “Not literally, but I don’t want to give her my heart only to take it away and run the first time things get hard.”

Snow nodded, understanding what she meant and she leaned back from her and smoothed her hands over Emma’s hair gently, the way only a mother could to calm their child in times of need and hurt. “I know you’ll do the right thing, Emma. You already know what to do, deep in your heart. You just need to fight your fears and never let them come back.”

“You think I’m afraid to love?”

“I think…that you are afraid to love her.”

“I’m more afraid of hurting her and Henry than I am to love her.”

“Like I said, Emma, I’m not saying that I approve or that I don’t, but this isn’t easy for me or your father either. But it won’t always be this way. We are all a family and we’ve gone through so much together already, having both of Henry’s mothers find something real and true between them is not nearly as much of a problem as it seems it should be,” Snow smiled, she never did stop smiling, and she leaned foreword and placed a soft, motherly kiss on Emma’s forehead. “I just want you to be happy.”

Emma sighed softly. Her mother was right. She was afraid to love and she had to stop being so afraid and grasp it, hold on to it with everything she had and never let go.

She just needed a little bit more time to face those fears and she knew she couldn’t truly face them all on her own.

**********

Regina’s foot tapped against the leg of the coffee table as she held a cup of tea in her hand. She was seated across from the Blue Fairy, her last chance at finding out the answers since she had searched for two days and came up with nothing. Blue had reluctantly offered to help, but told her there would be a price if she did.

A price she was there to find out and a part of her was afraid just what that price would be. Blue, while a powerful fairy, was not always a fair fairy. They had a long and complicated history together and she had doubted at first that the fairy would even give the thought of helping _her_ a second thought.

“The price?” Regina asked as Blue sipped from her tea cup. “What is the price for the answers I’m looking for?”

“Magic.”

“Mine?” Regina asked and Blue simply nodded her head. “A-all of it?”

“Not all, dear, no.”

Regina could feel her frustration growing, but she remained calm and sipped from her tea as she motioned with her hand for Blue to elaborate.

“The price of the answers you seek regarding this curse you unknowingly cast, is this,” Blue said as she conjured up a wand, one that looked so similar to the Dark Fairy’s wand, but different, thicker, longer. “You will surrender your dark magic and it will be stored in this wand, never to be used again. You will swear an oath, because as you know, light magic can very easily be turned dark if you allow it.”

“Anything.”

“Very well,” Blue said and she placed the wand on the coffee table that sat between them. “It’s a delicate process, Regina, and a very painful one at that, but only the dark magic will be removed, I can promise you that.”

“And the answers? Do I have to wait until—”

“No,” Blue smiled gently. “I will tell you all you need to know. Are there any specific questions you want to ask first or shall I just tell you what I know?”

“Please, just tell me, Blue. I have searched and searched, and I am exhausted trying to find these answers on my own. And actually,” Regina paused as she wondered how to word it, to ask her about Emma, about True Love and the kiss that broke the spell. “Can it be that we broke the curse together, or was there someone else behind the end of it?”

“It is true, Regina, for all and every curse cast out of dark magic can be broken with only True Love’s kiss. Your curse, however, was difficult. Personal. It could only be broken by you and you one True Love.”

“But I couldn’t have known that it was Emma—”

“No, you didn’t, but that night you cast it, Regina, you were heartbroken, your soul was weeping and you made a wish, a wish that the Dark Fairy granted from another realm. You wanted your happy ending but you had lost hope. The portal curse was only ever supposed to bring you and your one True Love through it, but there was a…glitch when it took all of Storybrooke back to the Enchanted Forest with the two of you.”

“A wish? I don’t understand. I didn’t make a wish, not specifically.”

“Your heart and your soul did, Regina. This is not an easy curse to understand. It’s taken me days to look into the magic that was involved with it. These are the answer that you seek and the answers you want are not always what you expect them to be.”

Regina groaned quietly as she sat back on the stiff sofa and sipped her cooling tea. She knew better than anyone that nothing was simply black and white, but shades of grey, especially when it came to magic, light and dark and what fell between.

“You and I both know that you would have believed Robin Hood to be your one True Love even after he reunited with his wife, who is his. You would have never gave a second thought to Emma Swan had you not unknowingly cast this curse that helped you both find your way. Green’s spell many years ago went wrong because Emma Swan had not yet been born. Not even I truly understand how that spell works, but it seeks out a heart true to the one it’s destined to be and in the case of Robin Hood, his heart was only close to being as true to yours. Emma’s, on the other hand, is your truest match. Fate had played out a complicated hand, not just for yourself, for Emma, but the entire realm as well.”

“Fate is a bitch,” Regina grumbled under her breath and Blue placed a hand over her mouth to stifle her laughter. “Did you know, Blue? Did you know before this portal curse was cast?”

“About Emma? Yes.”

“And you were never going to tell me?”

“Would you have ever believed me if you hadn’t seen it for yourself, Regina?”

Regina knew she wouldn’t have believed her for a second even though, very deep down in her dark heart she knew it was true. “Is that everything?” Regina asked as she leaned forward to place her tea cup back on the saucer. “Can we get this over with?”

“If you have any other questions, now is the time to ask them.”

“The things we saw, the things in the future, were they real?”

“They would not have appeared to you the way they did if it was not meant to be that way. Even if you changed one thing in your lives, the future would remain the same, the timeline just pushed back a little more until you both reached it together. While you were shown a future with Emma in a peculiar way, Emma had been shown a part of the past.”

“What part of the past?”

“Do you remember that lost child in the woods? You couldn’t have been no more than thirteen at the time,” Blue asked and Regina only nodded. “That was Emma, Regina. Because it had already became a memory for you, she had to visit that place in the past despite her never existing there.”

“I really don’t understand.”

“It’s a time paradox. Because it already happened, it needed to happen this way. Emma was sent there because she needed to see another side of you and she needed to steer you back in the right direction. You do remember you returned home after looking for that child instead of running away, yes?”

“I do. Mother was furious that I had been gone for hours without a word. I suffered terribly because I had tried to run away from her and my father.”

“Do you want know what would have happened had young Emma never traveled through time to set you back on the right path?”

“I wouldn’t be here or who I ended up being if I never stopped to help her, to ride with her. I barely remembered her because she never told me her name. I do have a question though, how come she was a child and when we fell through the portal into the past before, we were ourselves?”

“Magic and fate work in mysterious ways, ways neither of us will ever be able to understand. But it all led to you finding her again, here, because this is what was destined to be. When you were in the future with Emma, she saw you as she saw her Regina. You were her, but you were also yourself. You two are connected, body, mind, heart and soul. When you were apart during the curse, you took on the roles of who you were in that time. Emma, when in the Enchanted Forest, reverted to a child in order for fate to work and for you to not know who she was. For all intents and purposes, she was just another child, lost and alone and it put you back on your destined path. Do you understand now?”

Regina nodded, fighting the smile trying to dance out over her lips, fighting it because even though she was happy and she finally had her answers—as confusing as they were—there was still something missing. Emma. She hadn’t seen her since the day they broke the curse and Emma had refused to answer any of her calls or texts. She even went as far to ignore Henry every time he managed to see her, likely thinking he was conspiring with Regina to get Emma to give in and come and see her, or at the very least, talk to her over the phone.

“She will come around, Regina,” Blue said and Regina’s brow twitched. “Your thoughts, while they are your own, are very loud at the moment and I couldn’t help but feel them.”

“Oh.”

“In four hours, everything will begin to change.”

“I didn’t know you could see the future.”

“I can’t, just call it a feeling,” Blue replied with a knowing grin on her face. “Now, are you ready for this, Regina?”

“It is the price I have to pay for the answers that I seek,” she replied. “Yes, yes I’m ready, Blue. Please, let us just get this over with. I have promised my son I would take him out for ice cream before bed.”

Blue chuckled as she picked up the wand and instructed Regina to lay back on the couch. From where she was still sitting, she murmured under her breath a few words to a spell, one that Regina had and never would learn. Black light trickled from the tip, seeping into every inch of Regina’s body. The pain itself was tolerable at first, but then as the magic of the spell dug deeper into her body, seeing out every inch of the dark magic hiding inside every cell, the pain became insufferable.

This was almost the same level of pain as when that bastard shocked her nearly to death on that table. Blue shifted, standing to her feet as the wand began to shake in her hand. She struggled to keep a solid grip on it, incanting the next part of the spell as she neared Regina yet still kept a safe distance away. Even Regina knew the spell could backfire. It wouldn’t kill her but it could go one of two ways. She would be without magic forever or she would be far more powerful than ever before, magically juiced up for days, weeks at a time and that was dangerous for everyone.

“It helps if you think of something good in your life, something that will help you hold on to the light magic inside of you and use it to fight the pain. The dark magic is fighting against the spell which is why it is so painful for you,” Blue said quietly and Regina glared at her, tears stinging her eyes as she grit her teeth to keep from screaming out as the pain went from insufferable to something beyond the worst pain she had ever felt in her life. “Think of Emma, Regina. This of the future you were shown, the future you know you can have with her and the future of your family. Your happy ending.”

Regina closed her eyes, willing away the pain and trying to replace it with the thought of Emma Swan, her one True Love found at last, right under her nose for the last three years and neither of them had known it. She thought of the life they could have together, all the laughter and good memories they would create, between themselves and with Henry. One happy little family.

She thought of the moments that led up to the kiss, a real kiss between the two and not her and the Emma from the not to far future. She knew her heart had lost some of it’s darkness in that kiss, she knew because she had felt it burning through her right up until the moment they broke apart at Snow’s startled cry.

Snow White, the bane of her existence for so long, had given her something she never thought was possible. Her daughter, the Saviour, her True Love. Fate was a bitch, that was for sure, but she knew, deep in her heart she knew that if it wasn’t for Snow White ruining what she thought was her true love with Daniel, to turning her heart dark, her soul almost soulless enough to cast the dark curse, she would have never had that chance with Emma, not in the Enchanted Forest.

“Happy thoughts,” Tink whispered from where she stood by her head at the edge of the couch. “Think happy thoughts, Regina, and it’ll be over before you know it.”

“Tink?” Regina gritted as she barely could open her eyes, her fists balled tight as her body went rigid.

“Don’t think of the past, think of your future. You are here because of your past and yes, there is darkness, but if you make that definite who you’ve become, Blue can’t take the rest of your dark magic from you.”

Regina’s eyes rolled into the back of her heat as she was thrust with a painful blow that made her very veins feel as if they were burning lava. Sweat broke out over her skin, matting her hair to the back of her neck as she struggled to keep her focus on her happy ending. Her happy ending with Emma Swan and Henry.

Through sharp, rapid, painful breaths, she thought of what Emma had told her, of the future far from what she had experienced herself. They were married there and Henry was graduating high school, in a relationship of his own and they were all so happy, so in love. She wish she could’ve seen it for herself, to see what her happy ending would look like after everything she had gone through in her life, even after losing hope that she would never have or deserve one of her own.

She thought of both times she’d been in the future and although she had been completely caught off guard that first time, she knew now the real reason she hadn’t bolted out of there without even looking back. She wanted it. She wanted to be with Emma that way, she wanted to know what it felt like to be loved by her, to be touched by her, to be kissed by her, to feel every inch of her body consumed by the blonde who had rolled into town in her yellow Bug and changed _everything_.

No, not everything. Emma had changed _her_.

“It’s working,” Tink whispered and Regina wasn’t sure to who, but it made her smile and it made the pain start to subside. “It’s working!”

“Yes, it is,” Blue replied shakily and Regina, even with her eyes closed tight, managed to roll them at the uncertain tone of Blue’s voice. “Regina, I need you to hold on for just a little longer.”

“How much longer?” Regina asked, her voice tight.

“I’m not sure. Just…a little more.”

Although the pain had nearly disappeared completely, Regina’s body felt weightless as she could truly feel the last of the dark magic inside of her being pulled away. She managed to unclench her tight fists and she grasped at her chest, feeling a searing pain in her heart, but it wasn’t painful, just exhilarating and pure.

It wasn’t until she couldn’t feel the spell working on her, did she allow herself to open her eyes, the tears spilling freely as Tinker Bell helped her sit up and dabbed at her sweaty forehead with a cool, damp cloth.

“Hey, how are you feeling?” Tink asked her gently and Regina looked around the room, Blue nowhere to be seen. “She went to deal with sealing the wand, warding it or whatever. All I know is she is making sure that nobody gets their hand on the magic that used to be inside of you.”

“Tink, what are you doing here?”

“As one of your only close friends, Blue called me in when she was worried that you were fighting it too much, that the magic was fighting inside of you, not wanting to let go because of what you were thinking.”

“Oh.”

“I heard something about ice cream before bed?”

“Is this your way of asking if you are invited as well?” Regina smirked, amused at the fairy’s somewhat childlike behaviour, still unchanged after all these years. “Henry would like that,” she said after a moment. “Am I free to go?”

“Free as you’ll ever be, Regina.”

Although she felt weak from the spell that had removed her dark magic from the very core of her being, her heart and her soul, she felt strong and she could feel that strength building over the minutes that passed. She could feel her heart growing stronger, lighter, and there was only one thing she needed to make her feel whole. Complete.

Emma. Emma Swan.

Her one True Love.


	5. Chapter 5

Emma had been lying awake in the dark bedroom for hours. Henry had come home just a half an hour before bed time after spending the entire week staying with Regina. He wanted to come home and he told her as he stood outside her locked bedroom door that he missed her too much to stay away another day. He even told her of the week he’d had staying at his other mother’s house, how Regina would let him stay up later now that he was older and that she took him out for ice cream before dropping him off at the Charming’s apartment.

Regina had dropped Henry off and she had made no attempt to come up to see Emma and that thought right there was what had kept her up for the last few hours since Henry gave up on trying to get her to talk and went to bed himself.

Emma was exhausted for more reasons than one. Her and her mother had talked for hours and she eventually caved and told her mother of everything they’d been through during the portal curse, everything she knew and because she hadn’t experienced what Regina had, she had no qualms in keeping any of it a secret any longer. It had felt good to get it off of her chest and despite Snow’s horrified look when she told her that not one, but two of Regina’s solo portal jumps had been…well, she didn’t even need to say anything, the look on her face alone had given Snow the chance to jump to her own conclusions and in some way Emma was relieved that Regina hadn’t given her explicit details.

_“I slept with you! We had sex! For hours!”_

It was all Emma needed to know at the time, but just thinking back, Regina hadn’t seemed disgusted or hated that she had to experience it. In fact, she was almost desperate for her to know what had happened and had held back on her own accord, likely out of desperation not to scare her away any more than her own feelings had.

When she could sleep, the dreams she had had her waking up at all hours of the night, drenched in sweat with an ache between her legs her fingers couldn’t sate. Until she thought of how Regina’s lips had felt against her own, how soft and warm they were, how she longed to feel her again, to touch her, to experience that bursting feeling in her heart she had felt during that kiss all over again.

Tonight was no exception. She couldn’t sleep and all she could think about was Regina. She couldn’t think of nothing else, especially not after Henry had tried to talk her ear off about his other mother through her locked door earlier. It hadn’t helped that she had spent hours talking to her own mother about the things that had happened during the portal kiss including the moments that had led up to the kiss that had ended it all.

And it definitely hadn’t helped that all she could think about now was wondering just what had really happened during Regina’s solo portal jumps with her future self and her mind, her imagination gave her plenty of imagery to work with.

Biting her lower lip, she slid her right hand beneath her pyjama bottoms, sighting as her fingers made contact with her aching clit. She closed her eyes tightly, imagining Regina’s fingers in place of her own and it sent a shockwave of unprecedented pleasure rolling through her body. She threw back the covers and eased her pyjama bottoms down, exposing herself to the cool air in the bedroom as her fingers sought of the pleasure she so needed to feel, to find the release she had been searching for since the moment that kiss with Regina had ended.

Emma Swan was no stranger to sex with women, but it had never meant anything before, always just to satisfy herself for the time being, never having a connection that would make it feel so much more passionate, so much more intense, so much more to the point where she would cum harder than she ever had and she’d still want more.

Just as she slid two fingers inside of herself, groaning at the feel of her own fingers, her phone went off, the slight buzz on the table indicating she had a message. She hastily grabbed the phone, her fingers continuing to move inside of her, thrusting in and out, burying to the hilt as the tips of her fingers tapped against her g-spot, urging her release at her own hand.

**_I want to see you_ **

Emma groaned quietly as she read Regina’s text. She let her phone drop to her side, her other hand sliding under her tank top, her fingers easing over hardening nipples as she imagined all the way she wanted Regina to see her. She struggled to keep her moans quiet, not wanting to wake the others in the apartment, but it was hard because as her phone went off again, another shockwave of pleasure rolled through her. It still wasn’t enough to give her the release she was looking for and she grabbed at her phone, grunting in frustration as her fingers slipped out from inside of her and moved to her clit.

**_Are you still ignoring me?_ **

Emma hesitated before using her left hand to reply, her right hand continuing its ministrations on her throbbing clit, her brain swimming with a hundred million thoughts of what they could be doing if they were only together right that moment.

**_No._ **

Regina’s reply was almost instant.

_**Come over.** _

Emma groaned, her clit twitching at the subtle words she read on her screen.

_**Now?** _

_**Yes.** _

_**Okay.** _

Emma nearly leapt out of her bed, crashing into her night table as her legs tangled in the sheets and her pyjama bottoms that were halfway down her thighs. She clamoured to compose herself and she slipped out of her bedroom, phone in one hand, car keys in the other. Every step down the stairs creaked louder than she wanted, yet she breathed a sigh of relief once she was out the door and well on her way to the Bug.

She wasn’t sure what was going to happen when she showed up at Regina’s front door, but a part of her was grateful that Henry wasn’t still there. As she approached Regina’s house, she slowed down and debated whether to park the Bug on the street or the driveway. A small smile twitched over her lips as she pulled the Bug in behind Regina’s car, the breaks squealing as she came to a stop. She remembered seeing her car parked just like that, just a few weeks into the future, and a warm feeling came over her as she remembered the sight of future her and future Regina in the kitchen, making out with hands roaming in indecent places. Places she needed to feel Regina’s hands all over right now.

Emma pulled at the neck of her worn grey hoodie she’d thrown on before leaving the apartment. She didn’t even bother to change out of her pyjama’s, her body blissfully thrumming in arousal and her thoughts blurred by the single thought of what was going to happen as soon as Regina opened the door. Breathing in shakily, Emma checked herself over in the review mirror and ran her fingers through her hair in an attempt to tame the slight curls. She smiled at herself despite now feeling exceptionally nervous and she shook it off and climbed out of the car and walked across the lawn to the front door quickly.

Emma barely reached the first step before the door was opening and Regina stood there grasping on to the side of the door, a playful smile dancing over her lips as her eyes raked up and down Emma’s body almost possessively. Emma gulped hard as she looked at Regina standing there, wearing her long grey robe and from the looks of things, not much else underneath it at all.

_Fuck._

Regina beckoned her forward and she stumbled on the first step, earning a soft laugh from the brunette woman waiting in front of her. Yet, Emma was far too turned on to care that she had stumbled awkwardly up the front steps, her mind too focused on the fact that Regina’s left hand was trailing over the robe where it met in a V.

Emma gasped as Regina suddenly grabbed her by the front of her grey hoodie and pulled her the rest of the way into the house. Regina pushed the door shut and Emma found her back against it, Regina’s hand splayed on her chest as brown eyes stared into green.

“Regina, I—”

She was silenced by Regina’s lips on her own and she moaned as Regina’s lithe body pressed into hers, holding her hard against the door as she kissed her back with heated desire. Her whole body responded to the kiss, to the feel of Regina flush against her. Her hands came to rest on Regina’s hips as the kiss went from hungry and wanton, to soft and slow and passionate. It was Regina who ended it, leaving them both breathless as their eyes locked in a heated, lustful gaze.

“That was one hell of a kiss hello,” Emma whispered and Regina smiled, licking over her lips as she made no effort to move away from her at all. “If I didn’t know any better, you invited me over here to seduce me.”

“You are so very correct, Ms. Swan.”

In her current state of arousal, the way that Regina called her that made her whole body buzz with burning passion. With the way that Regina was looking at her, she wouldn’t doubt for a moment if Regina was going to take her right there, up against the door and although that had been a playing factor in the dreams she’d been having that more than involved Regina, she needed it to be different. Slow. She needed it to be slow or she’d be compelled to turn around and run right out the door.

Regina could sense Emma becoming hesitant and she kissed her softly, wanting so much more, but willing to give up her own need to control to allow things to happen however fast or slow Emma wanted. With one last kiss, Regina pushed herself away from Emma, yet found herself being pulled right back in, Emma’s fingers grasping on to her hips as their lips met again in a tender kiss.

“Can we…go upstairs?” Emma asked tentatively.

“If that’s what you want.”

“I do,” Emma smiled and she turned around, no longer pinned between the door and Regina and started to back up to the few steps that led into the foyer. “As much as I can enjoy the thought of you taking me up against the door, I’d much rather be taken in bed. Your bed.”

Regina kissed her, her body no longer feeling the effects of Blue’s spell at all now that Emma was there and in her arms, wanting her just as much as she wanted her. Regina allowed herself to be led slowly towards the stairs as she melted in Emma’s kiss, hoping that Emma realized that tonight was entirely in her hands without having to say a word. Yet, Emma still hesitated until Regina realized that she would have to lead the way to her bedroom, the one room in the entire house that Emma had never been in before.

Sliding her arms from around Emma’s strong body, she reached for her hand, her nose twitching as they intertwined their fingers and Regina led the way up the curved staircase slowly, minding every step and allowing Emma the chance to back out if this was something she truly wasn’t ready for or wanted yet.

When she had sent that text to Emma, she hadn’t intended to invite her over, but the blonde in her bed—soon to be their bed—was something she just could not get out of her mind and it had been the cause of her sleepless state that night. Once Emma finally replied, she had typed the words “come over”, thinking that Emma would tell her she couldn’t or would. The “now” had made Regina’s body burn with heated desire and she found herself replying quickly, not bothering to check the next text as she stripped out of her deep purple satin pyjama’s and pulled out the sexiest lingerie she owned.

She knew that after a week apart since the portal curse ended, she would have to find a way to seduce Emma Swan, even if she was relinquishing complete control. As she approached her bedroom, she pulled at the belt holding her robe closed and let it fall open, smiling to herself as she led Emma inside the dimly lit room.

She turned as she slid her robe off and let it fall to the floor at her feet, revealing the black and red lace bra and barely there panties, gauging Emma’s reaction as she raked her eyes over her body. Emma was speechless, her appreciative eyes unable to look away as Regina stepped towards her, closing the gap that had formed between them. She smiled at her as she lifted her fingers to the zipper of Emma’s hoody, watching her for any resistance before she pulled the zipper down slowly, her eyes flicking down and widening in surprise when she saw that Emma wore absolutely nothing underneath. She unzipped the hoodie completely but didn’t move to remove it, not yet.

Regina could feel Emma so much more now that her dark magic was gone and all that was left was light and as her fingers danced over Emma’s smooth abdomen just over her navel, she could feel what Emma felt completely. She grasped at the edges of her hoodie and pulled her in for another kiss, slowly backing up towards the bed as Emma’s hands gripped at her hips, her fingers dancing over her skin, teasing her with a touch she could feel in every ounce of her body.

Emma moved with her as they fell back on to the bed together, their lips joining in a hungry kiss. Regina flicked her tongue over Emma’s top lip, panting softly as she slipped her hands inside the open hoodie and eased her fingers over the soft, warm expanse of Emma’s back. Regina moved against Emma’s body, enjoying the feel of her weight on top of her. She moved one hand to the waistband of Emma’s pants, easing her fingers inside and smirking when she felt nothing beneath.

She didn’t rush Emma, she just kissed her deeply, thoroughly enjoying just kissing the Saviour like they had all the time in the world to be together, to explore each other’s bodies, to love each other fully and completely.

Regina almost whimpered as Emma ran a hand down her side, her fingers tracing over the mix of red black lace of her panties just over her inner hip. They both sighed into the kiss as Emma’s palm moved flat up Regina’s stomach and she lifted up a little, slipping a thigh between Regina’s legs as she rest her weight on her knees and her left hand. Regina needed to feel her touch and she almost pleaded her to touch her, but she lost herself in the kiss as Emma’s hand made a slow ascent up towards her breasts.

She moaned as Emma’s thigh pressed up against her center and she rolled her hips against the strong thigh between her legs, moaning against as Emma’s fingers teased over the top of her breasts that threatened to spill out of her bra. Her nipples ached, hardening at the soft touch of Emma’s fingers against her skin, still not quite close to touching her completely. She let out a soft whimper as Emma’s lips left her own and she closed her eyes as Emma kissed over her neck, her hand moving to palm her bra covered breast.

Regina forced her eyes open, watching as Emma tongued over the top of her breasts where skin met lace, teasing her as her fingers pinched her hard nipple through the lacy bra. Regina’s own hands moved from rubbing over Emma’s back and to cup her breasts with both hands, eliciting a quiet moan from the blonde currently teasing her and grinding against her as Regina lifted her leg between Emma’s thighs and the reaction was instant.

Her breath hitched in her chest as Emma leaned back, and knelt there for a moment, her breathing quick as Regina’s hands fell away from her breasts and they both drank in the sight of each other. While Regina already knew every inch of the body before her, Emma had never quite seen her this way and she still had more to uncover and discover. Regina wasn’t usually a quiet lover, but the silence said a thousand words between the two of them, more than words could say themselves.

Emma pulled her hoodie off, exposing herself to the room and to Regina’s appreciative eyes. Dusky rose nipples were rock hard, taunting Regina to slip her lips around one and suck on the puckered flesh. Yet, just as Regina sat up, intending to do just that, Emma slipped off the bed and hooked her thumbs around the top of her pants, deep desire and lust shining in darkening green eyes as she swayed her hips and slid down her pants, revealing all of herself to Regina without hesitation.

Emma climbed back on top of Regina, straddling her hips as she teased her fingertips over Regina’s stomach, moving quickly to grab her hands with one and pressing them against the mattress just over her head.

“Let me love you, Emma,” Regina whispered, the need to touch her as she felt her wetness against her lower abdomen and it was driving her insane with longing.

Emma shook her head no and bit her bottom lip, not saying a word as she slid her free hand between her own legs, her fingers disappearing from Regina’s wide, staring eyes. Regina could feel the back of Emma’s hand against her skin and the subtle movements her fingers were making as she touched herself.

“You didn’t let me finish.”

“What?” Regina whispered, her voice cracking as she revelled in the sight of Emma’s face just inches from her own. “Finish what?”

“Do you know what I was doing when you text me, Regina?”

Her libido was in complete control of her body and her mind now and all she could do was lick over her lips and nod, knowing full well what Emma was telling her.

“I couldn’t find release,” Emma continued, her fingers picking up speed and Regina felt a flood of wetness pour out from her, soaking her expensive lace panties and wishing it was her fingers sliding inside of Emma instead of being tortured while Emma fucked herself on top of her. “I keep having dreams about you. Dreams about us. Dreams about the things we could’ve been doing every night since the curse broke.”

Regina struggled underneath her, under the strong hand that held her own above her head, the weight of Emma holding them down causing her whole body to flush with eager desire. A part of her couldn’t believe that Emma Swan was being so brash, so open, so free, but she could feel how turned on the blonde was, she could feel it the instant she had nearly tripped up the front steps.

Emma needed release and she wouldn’t let Regina touch her. Not yet. Emma’s lips ghosted over hers, both of them breathing heavily, their breath mingling as Regina arched her hips upwards, causing Emma to slam her fingers harder and deeper inside of herself. Regina had never been more turned on, watching Emma’s lust filled eyes as she revelled in the pleasure she was giving herself. Regina rose her hips steadily, making Emma fuck herself harder and deeper, drawing out a string of moans from the blonde as she let her set an entirely different pace between them.

Regina barely blinked as Emma let go of her hands and suddenly the weight against her lower abdomen was gone and she leaned up on her elbows, watching as Emma removed her glistening fingers from inside herself slowly. Regina parted her legs as Emma sat back on the bed in between them and Regina felt her lower lip trembling as Emma spread her legs in front of her, draping each one of them over Regina’s knees.

“Touch me and I’ll stop,” Emma whispered huskily, leaning back on one hand as she trailed her fingers with the other over her naked chest. “Just…watch and let me do this for you…”

Regina whimpered but nodded, indicating that she would keep her hands to herself. For now. Emma would pay for this teasing, for this show she was putting on for her without hesitation. She didn’t know what had compelled Emma to do this, but she certainly was not complaining at the sight before her. Her own body was further heating up and while she had been ordered not to touch Emma, she could certainly touch herself.

She moved to sit up and made slow work of trailing her own hands over the top edge of her bra, watching Emma’s eyes as they followed her fingertips. With a salacious smirk, Regina fingered the front clasp, teasing her as her eyes flicked down and noticed that Emma’s fingers had still in her own anticipation of Regina about to remove her bra.

“Regina…” Emma gasped as her fingers idly circled over her own clit. “Tell me…”

Her lips twitched in surprise. She hadn’t figured Emma to like dirty talk in bed, but it was just one of many things about the gorgeous blonde woman in her bed that surprised her.

“I want to see you slide those long fingers of yours into your pretty little cunt,” Regina whispered huskily and she could feel the delicious shudder that rolled through Emma’s body as if it were her own. “Two of them. I want you to truly fuck yourself while I watch you make yourself cum.”

“Fuck,” Emma gasped, following Regina’s orders obediently. Regina’s mouth watered at the sight of two of Emma’s fingers sliding inside of her glistening hole with ease.

“Yes, dear, that is exactly what I want you to do is to fuck yourself for me.”

Her own lewdness surprised her too, but she never let it show, her fingers continuing to tease over her bra clasp before she snapped it open, freeing herself from the tight confines of the lacy bra. She shrugged it off, revealing herself to Emma, alternating between watching her fuck herself with her fingers to seeing the hungry, lustful and appreciative look in her eyes.

Leaning back on her left hand, Regina trailed her fingertips teasingly over the top of her breasts, her tongue snaking out to lick over her lips as she scratched a fingernail over one hard nipple and then moved through the dip of her breasts, slowly approaching the other and she pinched her nipple, moaning softly as the sight before her provided the tension that had her body wound tight and she found herself ready to find her own release. Even if it had to be by her own hand, just like what Emma was doing to herself.

“Do you like fucking yourself for me and threatening to stop if I touch you?” Regina asked, her voice teasing and husky as she trailed her hand down her abdomen slowly. It had the desired effect on Emma who moaned in response. “You told I can’t touch you. Does that mean that I cannot touch myself either?”

“Fuck.”

“You are making me so _hot_ , Emma. Not being able to touch you, watching you fuck your pretty little cunt with your fingers inside of you instead of mine, it’s driving me mad.”

Emma murmured under her breath as she panted and Regina knew she was close. She could almost feel the blonde about to come undone, every inch of her body coiling under the pull of her impending climax, ready for that release she was seeking so desperately for.

“I can feel you,” Regina groaned weakly as she slipped her hand inside her lace panties, feeling for herself just how wet Emma had made her. “Can you…feel me?”

“Yes…fuck, I can feel you, Regina!” Emma nearly shouted as her hips started to buck against her own hand, her fingers driving furiously inside of her tight, clenching hole. “I want to see you. I want to see you as you touch yourself.”

With a suggestive smirk, Regina deftly slid a single finger inside of herself and matched her own rhythm with Emma’s, thrust for thrust. She could feel the magic surging through her body, magic that had a different taste, a different feel, and she closed her eyes just for a brief second and she felt her rather expensive panties disappear completely.

They were laid bare for each other and spread wide open, literally and figuratively. While Regina would never allow something such as this to happen with anyone else, with Emma it felt right, it felt as if it were prevalent for this to happen to add to their growing relationship, adding an element to it neither had ever experienced before.

Regina watched with heavy-lidded eyes as Emma’s orgasm rushed through her, her body jerking and shuddering as it flooded through her entire body. Regina had never seen a more beautiful sight in her life and she knew in that moment she would never tire of the sight of Emma coming completely undone with the pleasure and the passion flowing through her so freely, passion that she could feel through magic and the connection she knew they so obviously felt flowing between them.

She watched as Emma fell back against the mattress, her body convulsing as her orgasm rippled through her. Regina slipped her fingers out of herself, taking advantage of Emma’s sated state and she manoeuvred easily, kneeling between Emma’s spread legs and she ran her hands up her inner thighs, licking slowly over her lips as Emma slipped her fingers out of her pussy and Regina gently wrapped her hand around Emma’s wrist and lifted her wet fingers to her lips.

Regina knew every inch of the body below her and she wanted nothing more than to show Emma just how good she could make her feel. She licked over Emma’s cum soaked fingers, their eyes locking in a piercing gaze as Emma beckoned Regina to come to her, to lay on top of her, to kiss her and touch her _everywhere_.

“You are so beautiful,” Regina whispered as she crawled over Emma’s body, her own hovering over the one below her, not quite touching her yet.

“So are you,” Emma replied just as quietly, but her voice didn’t quake as she reached up to slide her hands along Regina’s sides slowly, urging her down on top of her. “Is it like it was before?”

“Before?”

“When you were with me, well, future me seeing how this is the first time I’ve been with you like this.”

“No,” Regina replied and she smiled as confusion washed over Emma’s flushed face. “It is so much better.”

Emma grinned as Regina reached up to lightly brush aside the few strands of hair that had fallen over Emma’s eyes, her whole body humming as she could feel Emma everywhere they touched. The entire mood seemed to shift, the raunchiness of what had unfolded moments before turning into something else, something far more intense that Regina couldn’t quite put her finger on.

“You feel different,” Emma whispered, her fingers snaking over Regina’s back as they just stared into each others eyes. “I don’t know how to explain it and I know we’ve never been this intimate before, but you feel different, Regina. A good different.”

“Magic,” she smiled. “What you feel is magic.”

“But why does it feel so different?”

“Because what you felt before was dark magic and it’s not pleasant. What you feel now is my light magic mixing with your own.”

“I don’t understand?”

“You will,” Regina chuckled softly and delivered a soft yet sweet kiss to Emma’s lips. She wanted to tell her and she knew she would explain everything another time, but she wanted Emma to feel it for herself and she would, there was just one thing Regina wanted to do first. “Let me love you,” she repeated the same line as before, her voice thick with emotion and desire.

Emma’s mouth fell open slightly, a soft moan escaping past her lips before Regina moved to kiss over the soft, warm expanse of her neck, her tongue snaking out to taste her skin just below her ear. While her light magic was still something she had to become accustomed to channelling easily, if she focused just hard enough, she could feel the ghosting of her touch, feeling every ounce of pleasure that Emma felt.

She grinned against her skin, knowing just how much fun she could have with that because she knew if she felt it, Emma did as well. She sucked over her pulse point, nipping at now tender flesh, marking her. She licked over the mark lightly with the flat of her tongue before continuing her descent down Emma’s body. As she wrapped her lips around a hard, dusky rose nipple, she trailed her hand down Emma’s side, her nails raking along the skin of her thigh as Emma wrapped it around her, holding her closer.

Regina moaned as Emma lifted her other thigh was was pressed between Regina’s legs and she rolled her hips, the contact causing her core to ache deliciously for more. She sucked harder on Emma’s nipple, releasing the puckered flesh with a gasp. Emma’s hands were still roaming over her back and they moved to thread through her hair, lifting her a little just so Emma could look down at her for a moment. It was in that moment that Regina wanted to tell her that she loved her, but she didn’t dare let those words slip past parted lips. Not yet.

With a smile, Regina lowered her lips to place a firm kiss to Emma’s chest, moving slowly as she kissed over heated flesh towards her right nipple, teasing the tip with her tongue as she looked up at Emma with heavy-lidded eyes, watching every emotion show clearly in Emma’s eyes that were locked with her own.

She raked her nails over the back of Emma’s thigh once more before moving to hover just between her spread legs, her lips trailing a blazing path down her abdomen, her tongue dipping out to tease the skin around her navel. Emma was breathing harder, her heart pounding in her chest and Regina moved to place a solid, loving kiss at the spot just over her heart.

“I can feel it, our magic,” Emma whispered, gasping as Regina moved lower, laying between her legs and lightly teased her fingers over Emma’s inner thigh. “Fuck…Regina, I need—I need you to—”

“Touch you?” Regina whispered, her breath spilling over Emma’s heated core as her fingers danced over her wet pussy. “Taste you?” She asked, leaning in to run her tongue the length of her slit and Emma quivered, her back arching off the bed as Regina wrapped her lips around her tender, throbbing clit and sucked.

“Jesus,” Emma gasped as Regina’s mouth left her suddenly. “You are such a fucking tease, aren’t you?”

“Yes, Ms. Swan,” Regina chuckled, watching as her pussy visibly twitched at the name and it made her smirk. She always knew that when she called Emma that, it turned her on. “I am such a fucking tease, just like you with that little…stunt you pulled, pleasuring yourself and not allowing me to touch you.”

Emma nearly gushed at her words and she took such delight in watching the pleasure roll through Emma’s lithe, strong body. She could feel the frustration Emma was feeling and she inhaled deeply, breathing in the musky and sweet scent of her before dipping her head down, licking over her again harder, no longer teasing as she used her fingers to spread her folds and drank her in completely.

Emma gasped and moaned as she looked down her body at Regina between her legs, her tongue working over her expertly. The room felt as if it were spinning as Regina didn’t let up, her tongue strong and wet against her core, sliding in deep and tasting her fully. She grasped at the sheets with her left hand, her right tangling in Regina’s hair as her moans filled the room. She could barely keep her hips from bucking as Regina tongued her deeper, faster and she cried out as Regina splayed a hand over her lower abdomen, her nails scratching over her skin.

She was feeling so many new sensations, inside and out and it was almost too overwhelming, almost just too much. She clenched her eyes shut, moaning Regina’s name under her breath as she felt another powerful orgasm building inside of her. Regina moaned as she moved her lips to wrap around her clit, fingers sliding deep inside of Emma as she sucked, hard.

“Regina!” Emma cried out, her fingers scratching against Regina’s scalp as her orgasm rippled through her, warming her, filling her as she came undone from the inside out.

And then she blinked, feeling the tears burning in her eyes as the emotions and pleasure rolled through her body in waves. She smiled contently as she felt Regina’s warm, wet lips trail up her body slowly and then they were kissing, slow and deep, and all Emma could feel was all of Regina, everywhere.

Emma indulged in the sensual kiss, knowing how close Regina was to tumbling over the edge, there but not quite close enough. She had cum twice, twice more than Regina had and she frowned slightly against insistent lips and Regina pulled back a little.

“Is there something wrong, Emma?”

“No,” she whispered, a small smile curling over her lips as she used that moment Regina was distracted to roll her over onto her back. “I just want to make you feel as good as you just made me feel.”

“You already do, darling.”

Emma smiled again, shifting her weight until their centers were joined together. With one last soft kiss, Emma leaned back, rolling her hips down against Regina, watching her face contour with pleasure at the delicious friction that was building between them. Emma slipped a hand between their bodies, her fingers slicking over Regina’s wet cunt, spreading her lips before lowering herself back down on her.

“Emma, oh…don’t stop,” Regina moaned, her hands moving over her own body and Emma’s, their hips rolling and thrusting together in perfect synchrony. “Emma…fuck!”

“Let go,” Emma implored as she focused solely on giving Regina the pleasure and the release she’d been seeking.

She panted hard as she smiled, watching Regina arch off the bed, her orgasm powerful, so powerful that Emma could feel it too. And they were glowing, both a soft white light radiating over their bodies and feeling everything that Regina was, mixed with her own arousal, it was too much as she was cumming with Regina in seconds. Regina pulled her down, kissing her hard with hungry passion as they wrapped themselves in each other. Emma could feel that bursting feeling in her heart and it left her more breathless than the kiss did when they finally parted.

“Regina…” She whispered, both of them rocking together in small, jerky movements as thighs slipped between legs. “Is…that what you were talking about when you said that our magic is mixing together?”

“It is only the beginning.”

“It’s fucking intense,” Emma grinned, kissing over Regina’s forehead before moving down to capture her lips in another wanton kiss. “Will it always be like that?”

“Yes, I would imagine so.”

“How does it feel for you?” Emma asked as they laid there holding on to one another.

“Like nothing I’ve ever felt before. It is incredible. You are incredible.”

“You are amazing, Regina,” Emma smiled back at her, loving the feel of Regina’s arms around her, her fingers dancing over the small of her back with a loving touch. “I never thought it could be this way for you and me. I never thought I—”

“I know,” Regina smiled, kissing her to quiet her words, only wanting to bask in the feel of her lover and the magic flowing inside of her, light magic filling her dark heart and taking away the last of the darkness from inside of it, heeling all the superficial wounds not just in her heart but her very soul. “I love you,” Regina whispered, loving how the words felt rolling over her tongue and past her lips. “I love you, Emma Swan.”

“I love you too.”

Emma closed her eyes, promising herself it would just be for a moment, but she soon succumbed to sleep, not once moving out of Regina’s warm embrace as her dreams were filled of nothing but the woman that held her so tight and so lovingly in her arms throughout the night.

The birds woke Emma up bright and early, just mere hours after she’d unintentionally fallen asleep. The sheets were covering them and she didn’t remember when they’d gotten into bed and she knew that at some point throughout the night, Regina had pulled the sheets over both of them to warm them from the coolness in the room. The early morning sunlight shone through the windows, brightening the room and allowing Emma the chance to lift her head and watch Regina sleep for a moment before she was waking her with a kiss.

She smiled, wondering why it’d taken them so long to truly find each other. They had a rocky history, a past, one that had changed and evolved over the years. If it hadn’t been for the portal curse Regina unknowingly cast, they may have never discovered just what was right there in front of them the whole time. True Love. Emma didn’t want to think of never knowing what it was like to experience every feeling she had felt the night before.

It had been so unexpected but every moment they had shared together the night before had felt so right, so true, that neither of them could deny what they had together, not even for a second. Because with every strike of lightning before the portal had opened, it had brought them closer to where they were now.

“Good morning, love,” Regina smiled, her eyes fluttering open and drinking in the sight of Emma watching her sleep with an adorable smile curled over her lips.

“Good morning, beautiful.”

They kissed lazy and slow, savouring the moment as their hands began to wander, their bodies instantly reacting to one another. The pull that Emma felt, she knew it wasn’t just magic, it was their souls clinging to each other and never wanting to let go.

“Would you…” Emma asked quietly, both of them stilling their wandering hands for a moment as their eyes locked in an intense gaze. “Would you do it all over again if you had the chance?”

“Yes,” Regina whispered against Emma’s lips. “I’d do it all over again if I end up right here with you…”


End file.
